I was pleased earlier this week when I noticed Barack Obama’s love letter to town hall meetings in his book, The Audacity of Hope, and expressed the audacious hope that he might show up for one with John McCain some day besides July 4.

Well, it sounds like the editors of the Washington Post also find Obama’s counter-proposal ridiculous, and completely contradictory to his previous “anytime, anywhere” debate pledges.

The sooner the sniping stops and the serious discussion starts, the better off the country will be — and the best way to achieve that would be for the candidates to meet, one-on-one, as often as possible. Mr. McCain’s proposal to hold weekly town hall meetings was — as the Obama campaign said — “appealing.” That was more than three weeks ago. Since then, the Obama campaign has countered with the offer of a single town hall meeting, on nobody-will-be-watching July 4, and a second debate on foreign policy — this in addition to the three traditional fall debates. Mr. Obama has written that “one of my favorite tasks of being a senator is hosting town hall meetings.” He launched his campaign decrying “the ease with which we’re distracted by the petty and trivial.” Now, he should seize the opportunity to practice the change he preaches.

They noticed the same quote I did. Heh, as Instapundit would say.