Gee, I thought that the old, enfeebled, elderly and Methuselah-resembling John McCain wouldn’t stand a sand castle’s chance in an earthquake again the young, vigorous, rhetorically masterful Barack Obama. So I am puzzled at this:

Barack Obama’s campaign released a letter this afternoon from campaign manager David Plouffe to the Commission on Presidential Debates only agreeing to the traditional three sanctioned fall debates and single vice presidential forum.

“Due to the late date of the two parties’ nominating conventions, and the relatively short period between the end of the conventions and the first proposed debate, it is likely that the four commission debates will be the sole series of debates in the fall campaign,” Plouffe writes.

Not said is whether Obama is any longer considering meeting John McCain for any town hall meetings outside the Commission’s debates. After initial indications in June that some would take place, it appears increasingly unlikely that the two candidates will meet on stage before the first debate at Ole Miss in September. McCain wanted to do one per week; Obama’s campaign responded by proposing one town hall on July Fourth and a Lincoln-Douglas-style appearance in August. McCain’s campaign rejected this counter-offer and discussions have since ceased as the campaign has increasingly turned negative.

Front runners don’t like debating, of course, but again, it was my understanding that Barack Obama would clean John McCain’s rhetorical clock in any debate between the two. Strange then that Obama doesn’t take advantage of an opportunity to engage in a little clock-cleaning.