Opinion: Barack Obama heads for North Carolina to prepare for Tennessee

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Barack Obama’s presidential debate prep got all messed up last week before his initial verbal confrontation with Republican John McCain down in Mississippi.

There was that minor kerfuffle over the major international financial crisis and McCain sort-of suspending his campaign but then Obama had to go back to Washington to sit at one end of the White House Cabinet table where he hopes to sit in the middle come January and pretend to consult with President Bush, which reportedly didn’t go too well, although McCain didn’t lose his temper like some people hoped.

Anyway, the freshman Illinois senator’s got his prep time all laid out already for the next debate.

As the nation’s political attention focuses on the sole vice presidential debate in St. Louis tonight, the Asheville Citizen-Times is reporting that Obama will settle down for a few days in western North Carolina over the weekend to prepare for his second of three go-arounds with McCain.

That comes next Tuesday in Nashville. This one will be a townhall format, McCain’s favorite and the style of the weekly get-together he proposed with Obama for last summer, which Obama seemed to agree to but changed his mind again.

According to the newspaper, Obama has no events planned during his prep stay. But campaigns can always throw one together quickly to reap some publicity and let the candidate practice some new lines before real audiences.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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