Barack Obama is trying to scare old people that John McCain will “privatize” social security. McCain responds:

We have to fix Social Security, and we have to fix Medicare. And I want to just mention on the issue of Social Security, ‘McCain wants to quote privatize Social Security.’ My friends, I do not and will not privatize Social Security. It is a government program, and it is necessary, but it’s broken. We’ve got to tell the American people that we got to fix it. And we got to sit down together, the way that Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did back in 1983 and fix Social Security. But my friends, I will not privatize Social Security, and it’s not true when I’m accused of that, but I would like for younger workers, younger workers only, to have an opportunity to take a few of their tax dollars, a few of theirs, and maybe put it into an account with their name on it. That’s their money. That’s their money. So when I say that, so when I say that, please don’t – please don’t let them twist that as they have others. It’s their money. It’s their money. It’s your money. And we will make sure that present day retirees, I will commit, have the benefits that they have earned. And nothing any proposal would change that.

Who is going to win this one? Scaring old folks is a tried and true political tactic so McCain will likely have his work cut out.

Meanwhile, he is trying to force Obama into town halls (even accepting invitations from the LBJ and Reagan libraries) and  has rebuffed a limited counteroffer from Obama. It is unclear whether at this point they will agree to any. Why won’t Obama agree? As one friendly blogger concedes: ” Too much time away from campaigning — it’s a big country and there are lots of places to go, too much prep time, too much schedule disruption. And, truth be told, McCain is better at these kinds of events than Obama is.” Will it matter? On this one, unlike social security, McCain may have the upper hand. After all, why should Obama be afraid to interact unscripted with McCain?