Obama Open to Town Hall Debates With McCain

June 4, 2008— -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hinted Wednesday he's open to engaging Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in a series of nontraditional presidential debates.

"Oh, we're definitely going to be doing some town hall debates," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told ABC "World News" anchor Charlie Gibson.

Indicating he's not prepared to start debating McCain next week, as McCain's campaign had formally requested, Obama expressed interest in going head to head with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee as soon as his campaign fully pivots toward the general election.

"I look forward to, you know, having more than just the three traditional debates that we've seen in recent presidential contests," he said.

Obama did, however, caution that both campaigns would have to figure out the timing.

What to do About Clinton

In the more immediate future, Obama admitted he will tread carefully in the coming days and weeks as more is learned about exactly what Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., wants. "I think it's very important for me to meet with her and talk to her about how we move this party forward."

Pressed over whether he needs to make a decision immediately about offering Clinton the vice presidential nod, Obama punted. "I haven't heard directly from her, you know, how she wants to move forward. I -- my main goal is to make sure that the party is unified," said Obama.

He showered his nomination rival with high praise as an "extraordinarily capable and tenacious person."

Obama was gracious when asked if he felt slighted that Clinton did not acknowledge that he had secured the Democratic nomination, in her speech on Tuesday.

"This is a tough thing for all of us," he said. "And to, you know, come as close as Sen. Clinton did and then not get the nomination, I think is something that has to be processed. But I think very highly of Sen. Clinton and her commitment to making this country better. And so, I'm confident that we're going to be unified this November."

Pivoting Toward the General Election

On Wednesday, Obama announced the formation of a vice presidential search committee, as he builds his infrastructure for the general election. One general election issue that has dogged Obama for several months is his apparent reversal of his pledge to use public money for the general election campaign. In the Gibson interview, Obama was noncommittal about using public money.

"I've already expressed concerns before about the capacity of third parties to affect the campaign process with a whole lot of money and a lot of resources," said Obama. "We've already seen Web sites developed in which I'm being attacked, and are purportedly not coordinated with John McCain, so we've got to work out -- and I've said this from the start -- I'm interested in making sure that we keep this process intact, but what I'm not going to do is unilaterally disarm and allow hundreds of millions or tens of millions of dollars worth of attack ads raining down on my head from outside groups."