Obama to Limit Debate Appearances

Barack Obama is tired of playing the debate games:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama will limit the number of debates and forums he will attend and instead focus more of his time campaigning in key presidential primary and caucus states, the Illinois Democrat's campaign manager announced on Saturday.

In a statement posted on Obama's website, "Debates and forums going forward," campaign manager David Plouffe notes that Obama has already participated in seven debates and 19 forums. With just a little more than four months before the Iowa caucuses, the Obama campaign has decided to take more control of the senator's schedule.

"Unfortunately, we simply cannot run the kind of campaign we want and need to, engaging with voters in the early states and February 5 states, if our schedule is dictated by dozens of forums and debates," Plouffe wrote. "Ultimately, the one group left out of the current schedule is the voters and they are the ones who ask the toughest questions and most deserve to have those questions answered face to face."

I can't blame him. The debates generally offer very little substance and mostly just provide a forum for candidate sound bites. Given that Obama's position in the campaign has taken a beaten lately from his own statements, some of them offered in debates, he probably would be better off sticking to traditional campaigning instead of appearing in these dancing monkey shows with 12 other candidates.