On May 16, Barack Obama bravely declared that he would debate John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee “anywhere, anytime.”

“If John McCain wants to meet me anywhere, anytime, to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, in Iran, in the Middle East or around the world, that is a conversation I am happy to have,” said Obama to an adoring audience of “reporters” in Waterstown, South Dakota. “I believe that there is no separation between John McCain and George Bush…and I think their policy has failed.”

Of course, the McCain campaign responded to this with an immediate call for ten town hall-style “debates” — a style and quantity unheard of in recent presidential campaigns, when most candidates want to be able to limit the damage that can occur as a result of going off-script at any time.

The Obama campaign responded with a North Korea-style offensive, refusing to participate (clearly, they too have heard Obama speak without a TelePrompTer — it is not pretty) but claiming that it was the McCain campaign that actually declined the opportunity.

“It’s disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign decided to decline this proposal,” said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, who was either the most confused man on the planet at the moment he released that statement, or simply a bold-faced liar (those aren’t “new” in politics, Barry, just FYI).

Monday, McCain continued his attempt to get Obama in the same room talking issues — something the Democrat has been too slippery for so far — with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle. The editors write:

Sen. John McCain came up with a terrific idea Monday when he was handed an invitation to meet with our editorial board as part of our endorsement process.

“Why don’t you invite Senator (Barack) Obama to join me?” McCain suggested.

McCain noted that he has been frustrated in his attempts to have “just the two of us stand there and answer questions” in a town-hall format.

“Unfortunately, he (Obama) has refused to do so,” McCain told our colleagues Debra J. Saunders and Carla Marinucci at the start of an interview at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.

Senator Obama: Consider this an official invitation for a debate with McCain before The Chronicle’s editorial board.

While Obama’s RSVP to that invitation appears to have been lost in the mail, the Democrat’s empty claims of bravery and willingness to debate haven’t gone away.Yesterday, in his second attempt of the day at bringing back losing lines of attack from the spring, apparently hoping that enough people had forgotten about their earlier failed use, Obama went back to the “I’ll debate John McCain anywhere, anytime” well — and, when called out on it yet again, tried the whining, “everybody’s out to get me” routine that makes him look so darn presidential.

From the AP:

“I want to cut taxes for middle-class families, ordinary folks who are working hard and playing by the rules,” [Obama] said.

He compared himself to western legend Wild Bill Hickok, who he said fought a duel in Springfield.

“I’m ready to duel John McCain on taxes right here, quick draw,” Obama said.

Such false, machistic bravado from a man we were promised had made masculinity so irrelevant that he was going to be our first female president!

Speaking of being quick on the draw, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds jumped on Obama’s empty declaration immediately, saying, “If Barack Obama wants this so-called duel then why did he and his entourage run for the hills when John McCain challenged him to 10 town halls.”

Obama’s response was, sadly, predictable. “I don’t hear very much positive from Sen. McCain,” the Democratic frontrunner whined to goo-goo eyed press. “He seems to be only talking about me. You need to ask John McCain what he’s for, not just what he’s against.”

Well, Senator Obama, far be it for me to assign motives to a person I don’t have a personal relationship with, but I’d venture to guess that John McCain is “for” debating you on every issue you claim to have superior knowledge of, but are too afraid to answer questions on.

How’s that?

As I wrote last night,as long as Barack Obama is spending his allotted stump time being negative about how awful, negative, and old-politics John McCain is, and how McCain won’t talk about “ideas” or “issues,” he’s successfully avoiding one of his greatest weaknesses: talking about ideas and issues.

When all you have to offer is the oldest style of liberal machine politics available, and the stalest of long-debunked, far-left “ideas,” any the time you can spend talking about how your opponent is supposedly talking about you is time spent successfully dodging the bullet of actually having to say things that would reveal yourself, and your positions, for what they are.