Obama agrees to 3 debates with McCain

. -- The campaign of Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday accepted an invitation for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate as proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, leaving in doubt a series of town-hall-style events proposed by Republican John McCain.

Though not ruling out the possibility of a series of debates, Obama aides said that this year’s lengthy primary season and the McCain campaign’s rejection of the Obama proposal led them to move toward the more limited proposal suggested by the national debate commission.

The first presidential debate is set for Sept. 26 in Oxford, Miss. The others are scheduled for Oct. 7 and Oct. 15, with the vice presidential debate set for Oct. 2.

A McCain spokesman used Obama’s debate acceptance as an opportunity to tweak the Illinois senator for refusing to join McCain in a string of weekly debates. The Arizona senator had proposed the events in which they would take questions from voters.