John McCain Has Abandoned Town Hall Meetings

Politico is reporting that John McCain, who initially said he preferred town hall meetings, has quietly stopped scheduling them since his audiences began to make speeches that created a backlash against McCain. At one point, McCain actually justified his attack ads by saying they were his only reasonable alternative after Barack Obama declined to appear with McCain at an extended series of town hall debates during the campaign.

UPDATE -- On November 3, C-SPAN is broadcasting tape of a McCain town hall in Peterborough, New Hampshire from yesterday, November 2. He seems relaxed and direct, and even was willing to differ somewhat from a questioner on a clean-coal issue (McCain said he would invest in clean coal, but would build coal plants now). Granted, were McCain to say this in Pennsylvania--and he has been saying it in Pennsylvania--he might be accused of pandering, but my sense just catching the question and answer exchange at a glance from Peterborough was that the citizen was advocating for clean technologies. So, at least there was something like a conversation and an airing of pros and cons. Where has this McCain been for the past two months?