John McCain at the Lakeville, Minn., event where an audience memeber said she'd heard Barack Obama was \"an Arab.\" McCain avoids trouble from crowds

First, there was the angry man who told John McCain to hit Barack Obama “where it hurts.”

Then came the woman who called the Democratic nominee “an Arab.”


And don’t forget the man who stood up before a packed crowd and said he was “scared” of an Obama presidency — nevermind the racially tinged cat calls and rounds of boos from McCain’s other gymnasium crowds.

The town hall format was supposed be the Republican nominee’s favorite campaign forum, highlighting his shoot-from-the-hip style, his broad knowledge on a slew of issues and his irreverent wit. He loved it so much that he challenged Obama to a string of town hall debates.

But with their potential for amplifying unscripted outbursts and attention-diverting disasters, the microphones at high school gymnasiums and basketball arenas across the swing states have gone silent during the final stretch of the presidential campaign. McCain, a man who has prided himself on discussions with the common man, has not entertained a single question from audience members since Oct. 10, when he faced a belligerent crowd in Lakeville, Minn., that at times turned against him.

The disappearance of the town hall format from McCain’s campaign is striking, political observers said, offering a vivid example of how a signature strength became a potential liability and was abandoned. (Obama, too, has done away with the town halls, last taking questions from voters on Sept. 12 in New Hampshire.)

“The town hall format proved to be a little embarrassing for the campaign, and it built a negative picture about what this campaign is all about,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, adding that the encounters were “too costly.”

Over the past few weeks, McCain has replaced his beloved town halls with large rallies, press statements delivered at factories and in hotel ballrooms, “town square” stump speeches given in the center of small towns, and stops at restaurants and other local landmarks.

That could change on Sunday. Down in the polls with just a few days remaining before Election Day and apparently willing to risk the uncontrolled format, McCain is scheduled to hold a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, where independent-minded voters gave him victories in both the 2000 and 2008 primaries. The most recent polling shows Obama with a sizable lead in the Granite State.

"We think New Hampshire has always been a battleground. We wouldn’t go there just for nostalgia purposes," campaign manager Rick Davis said in a conference call with reporters. “We are pretty committed to finishing the campaign in New Hampshire.”

Town halls are typically smaller events than rallies, making them less than ideal forums to reach large numbers of independent and undecided voters, said one senior McCain aide, who explained that only the most dedicated McCain supporters got tickets.

But the angry crowds — including people who screamed "terrorist" and "liar" in reference to Obama — worried McCain and his campaign aides, who feared a backlash from undecided and less partisan voters. McCain himself on occasion sought to soothe his crowds’ emotions after media reports started focusing on their out-of-control comments.

“We want to fight, and I will fight,” McCain told supporters earlier this month in Minnesota. “But I will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments. I don’t mean to reduce your ferocity. ... I just mean to say, you have to be respectful.”

The crowd largely ignored his plea.

“I can’t trust Obama,” one woman said, rising to her feet and staring into McCain’s eyes. “I have read about him ... and he’s an Arab.”

McCain quickly denied it. Obama was “a decent family man,” McCain said, and a “citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

After another man told McCain he was scared of an Obama presidency, McCain replied: “I have to tell you, Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States.”

“Come on, John!” a man in the crowd yelled out as others booed.

The next day, Mark Salter, McCain’s senior adviser, promised more town halls to come, saying the candidate “loves town halls ... and he’ll continue to do them. He’s doing a couple next week.”

But two town halls scheduled for the following week were scrapped.

Observers say it’s not surprising the McCain camp shed the format.

Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, said the McCain campaign purposely pulled back to avoid negative commentary.

“They were taking disproportionate hits for the questions being posed,” MacManus said. “If you can avoid that kind of negativity, you certainly do so, especially when you’re trying to close the gap.”

McCain “has the political instincts to know that wasn’t going to look good and play well to a national audience,” MacManus added.

But Zelizer and MacManus said the campaign also changed tacks because McCain was down in the polls.

“When you’re this far behind, you need larger crowds,” Zelizer said. “I’m not sure that if he had more town halls it would change the dramatic fall in the polls that we’ve been seeing.”

“The final weeks are all about volume, volume, volume,” MacManus added.

So for McCain, town halls were out and more traditional campaign rallies were in.

On Thursday, several thousand people waited in the cold to see McCain; his wife, Cindy; daughter Meghan; and close friend Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) launch a two-day Ohio bus tour with a rally in Defiance, Ohio, in the northwest corner of the state.

High school students in varsity letter jackets huddled together to stay warm, while adults listened enthusiastically as the McCain entourage addressed the group outside of the town’s junior high school.

Even though no one had the chance to ask a single question, Graham attempted to warm up the freezing crowd with some jokes.

“Anyone see the infomercial last night?” he said, referring to Obama’s half-hour commercial. “Thank God for cable. If we had played that at a prison camp, it would have violated the Geneva Convention.”

Later, several dozen people lined Market Street in Tiffin, Ohio, cheering and clapping as the Straight Talk Express passed. McCain jumped off the bus, shook some hands and made his way through the crowd into a local coffee shop, aided by the town’s mayor.

At another stop, in Sandusky, Ohio, McCain gathered a modest-sized crowd for a short stump speech around a large wooden gazebo.

All of this without taking a single question from supporters.