By Holly Bailey and Andrew Romano

Let the debate over debates begin. 

At a town hall meeting this morning in Baton Rouge, John McCain announced that he'd sent Barack Obama a letter suggesting they campaign together at joint forums this summer. His proposal--first floated a few weeks ago by Mark McKinnon, a McCain adviser who recently stepped back from his full time duties with the campaign to honor his pledge not to work against Obama's candidacy--suggests the two appear at town hall meetings every week for the next 10 weeks until the Democratic Convention in Denver. "I don't think we need any big media run productions, no process questions from reporters, no spin rooms," said McCain. "Just two Americans running for the highest office on earth responding to the concerns of the people whose trust we must earn." (A copy of the letter is posted on the McCain website.) For the first event, McCain floated a town hall meeting on June 11th or 12th at Federal Hall in New York City--the place, he noted, where George Washington took the oath of office. To keep the forums balanced, McCain proposed having the audience--200 to 400 people, he said--chosen by an independent polling group and audience questions selected by an "independent local moderator." "I even suggested we travel to them together on the same plane," McCain said. "Probably would help on energy savings." At which he paused, grinned and added another joke: "Given our expenses, I know our campaign would agree to it."

McCain has an unusual inspiration for the joint forums: Barry Goldwater and John F. Kennedy. Back in December 2006, McKinnon watched the Goldwater documentary "Mr. Conservative" on HBO and learned, as he put it, that "Goldwater and John F. Kennedy were having conversations about how, if they were the nominees in 1964, they were going to jump on a plane and campaign together around the country." He was thrilled by the idea. "It's the sort of thing you could see Obama and McCain doing," McKinnon told New York magazine's John Heilemann at the time. "I mean, wouldn't that be great?" Of course, Obama had yet to announce, and McCain was about to plummet from sure thing to long shot. But McKinnon kept the concept alive--and now it seems to have proven irresistible to his boss. "In the spirit of President Kennedy's and Senator Goldwater's agreement," wrote McCain in today's letter to Obama, "I invite you to join me in participating in town hall meetings across the country to discuss the most important issues facing Americans." Another iconic Arizona senator. Another young, inspirational Democrat. And another chance, in Goldwater's words, to "[do] the country a lot of good."

In theory, maybe. But in practice? Maybe not. In his response this afternoon to McCain's invitation--which was hand-delivered to Obama's Chicago offices by a middle-aged messenger, prompting a spokesman to reply, "You could have just emailed this"--Obama campaign manager David Plouffe initially offered something of a dodge, noting that Obama finds "the idea of joint town halls... appealing" but has "just secured our party's nomination"--meaning that McCain's proposal would be only "one of the many items we will be addressing in the coming days." (As the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder wrote, the fact that Team Obama "clinched the nomination 15 hours ago and need to focus on a few other matters before they get to the town halls" is a pretty "good excuse to delay negotiations.") But the real sticking point wasn't Plouffe's procrastination--it was his counterproposal. Showing that he's familiar with presidential history, too, Plouffe recommended an alternative format that "more closely resembles the historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas"--that is, "less structured and lengthier than the McCain campaign suggests." Going forward, this could be a big problem. For Team McCain, the whole point of these joint forums is getting the senator away from the podiums and the prepared remarks (where he suffers) and allowing him to push and pull in conversation with a crowd (where he shines). The Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, however, consisted of a) one candidate speaking for a solid hour, b) his opponent pontificating an hour and a half, and then c) the first candidate making a half-hour rebuttal. That might be good for the oratorically gifted Obama--but it would defeat the purpose for McCain. Moreover, Kennedy and Goldwater were close friends who thought flying from stop to stop would be, to quote the Arizonan, "a good time"--and even then, he added, " it probably wouldn't have happened." So far, McCain and Obama haven't exactly shied away from the traditional, derisive, partisan exchanges.

For now, however, the campaigns are playing nice. "Earlier this afternoon, the respective campaign managers spoke," says McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker, noting that they agreed "in spirit" to the idea. "They both expressed a commitment to raising the level of dialogue, and they will be in close contact as we work together to make this idea a reality." Why so gentle? Because each candidate actually believes that, head to head, he would win. McCain wants to show he's as vigorous as someone 25 years his junior (the free attention isn't shabby, either). Obama wants to show he's as credible and substantive as someone 25 years his senior (the visual difference--height and age--helps, too). And both want to show they're as authentic as they constantly claim. Will these historic talks break down as each party pushes for their preferred format? We hope not. In that case, we won't see Obama and McCain share a stage until September 28th--the date of the first presidential debate in Mississippi.

And that's no one's idea of a good time.