REMEMBER THE TOWN HALLS McCAIN WAS SO BIG ON?

Well, they are "no longer operative" in the McCain campaign and even FAUX News realizes that.

McCain embraces the staged rally
by Mosheh Oinounou
September 10th, 2008 3:41 PM Eastern
FOX EMBEDS

PHILADELPHIA, PA — For a candidate who once railed against “stale soundbites, staged rallies and over-managed messages,” John McCain seems to have turned over a new leaf.

Today marks the four-week anniversary since McCain held his last press conference (8/13 in Birmingham, MI) and three weeks since his last public town hall meeting (8/20in Las Cruces, NM).

While shifting to rallies is inevitable for any party nominee during a general election, McCain has always touted town hall meetings and interactions with the press as reasons for his success.

Throughout the spring and summer, then-presumptive nominee McCain enabled the public and the media an opportunity to question him on an almost daily basis, holding town hall meetings open to supporters and critics and conducting press conferences and media sessions aboard his bus.

McCain told a Belleville, Michigan town hall meeting in July. “If I win, it’ll be because of events like this.”

It turns out that he may have been wrong on that one. McCain has seen his poll numbers jump since dropping the press avails and the town hall meetings and instead speaking at rallies with anywhere between 5,000 and 15,000 supporters where he can deliver his intended message.