At a town hall meeting in Dayton, Ohio, Barack Obama focused his remarks on energy - something the two candidates have been sparring over for weeks. Obama has called McCain’s gas tax holiday a gimmick and says off shore drilling won’t have an impact for years. Neither fix, Obama has said, addresses the larger need to ween the country off of our dependence on oil - which McCain hasn’t addressed in his 26 years in office.

On the other side, the McCain camp has said that Obama doesn’t mind record high gas prices. Just today their campaign sent a statement to reporters reading, “Today, Barack Obama criticized wind, hydropower, domestic oil drilling, gas tax relief and nuclear power but did not offer a single proposal to bring down gas prices. The difference is Obama’s ‘Dr. No’ approach believes that every energy source has a problem and John McCain believes that every energy source can be part of the solution Americans need right now.”

In fact Obama did point out flaws with wind, hydropower, and nuclear power today at his town hall today when a voter expressed concerns on storing nuclear waste. Obama told the crowd that we have to utilize experts to figure out a way to store the waste safely because nuclear power has “a very big advantage” in that it doesn’t cause global warming and concluded that “nuclear power is gonna have to be a part of the mix. I know some people don’t like to hear that, but there is no perfect energy source.”

So what did “Dr. No” take issue with? Read part of his answer below:

“Every energy source has a problem, even energy sources that sound really clean, like for example hydropower. I was in Oregon, it turns out it’s messing up the salmon runs and the fish are being affected. You know wind is a great energy source except sometimes it’s not windy…I don’t think we can eliminate any single energy source….Solar, wind, biofuels - all these different approaches we should try and make different investments and figure out what works.”

While it may be a stretch for the McCain campaign to characterize the presumptive Democratic nominee as “Dr. No” when it comes to alternative energy, Obama also got in on the action. “[McCain's] voted against alternative sources of energy.  Against clean biofuels.  Against solar power.  Against wind power.  Against an energy bill that represented the largest investment in renewable sources of energy in the history of this country. So when John McCain talks about the failure of politicians in Washington to do anything about our energy crisis, understand that John McCain should look in the mirror because he has been a part of that failure,” Obama said of his Republican rival.

In an interview with the Washington Times, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, a McCain advisor and surrogate, questioned the reality of an economic recession. According to the paper, Gramm said the slowdown was “wildly exaggerated.”

“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” Gramm told the paper. “We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he continued, adding there’s “constant whining, complaining” about an “America in decline” despite booms in U.S. exports and growth.

The Obama campaign gleefully leapt at Gramm’s observations, issuing a statement to reporters. “The American people know that our economic problems aren’t just in their heads.  They don’t need psychological relief – they need real relief – and that’s what Barack Obama will provide as President,” a spokesman wrote.

At Obama’s economic security town hall in Northern Virginia, presumptive Democratic nominee Obama teed up his response by reminding voters that John McCain at one point observed that the economy had seen “great progress.” Obama told the crowd of nearly 3,000, “If you can’t see the problem you’re not gonna solve it. Now Senator McCain, unfortunately doesn’t seem to see the problem.”

Quoting Gramm, Obama interpreted, “I guess what he meant was that it’s a figment of your imagination, these high gas prices. Senator Gramm then deemed the United States – and I quote – ‘a nation of whiners,’ he said incredulously as the crowd jeered. “Ho! ‘A nation of whiners.’”

Noting the irony that McCain “admitted” his gas tax holiday and off shore drilling will have “psychological benefits,” Obama said, “America already has one Dr. Phil.  We don’t need another one when it comes to the economy – we need somebody to actually solve the economy. It’s not just a figment of your imagination, it’s not all in your head!”

Obama concluded his riff by saying, “I think it’s time we had a President who doesn’t deny our problems – or blame the American people for them – but takes responsibility and provides the leadership to solve them.  And that’s the kind of President I intend to be.” The crowd seemed to agree with his assessment.

At a town hall meeting in Powder Springs, Georgia, outside Atlanta, Barack Obama discussed bankruptcy before taking questions from the audience. One man, a self described reformed Republican talked about Obama’s “interesting week” last week, when the Illinois Senator was accused of flip-flopping on Iraq.

Last week in Fargo, ND, Obama made room to “refine” his Iraq policy, causing the McCain campaign to send out a snarky statement congratulating the Democrat for embracing John McCain’s views on the war in Iraq. Obama, of course, maintained his plan for troop withdrawal has been consistent all along - he would remove one to two combat brigades a month, at which rate all would be out of the country in 16 months. He said he always qualified that the timetable would be contingent on the situation on the ground in Iraq.

“In particular Senator McCain and his cronies are now coming after you on Iraq, and I was wondering if you could make very clear again what the position is,” the man said at the Georgia town hall.

Obama rejected the “broader issue” that he’s shifting to the center or flip-flopping. “The people who say this apparently haven’t been listening to me,” he began. He identified himself as “squarely in the Democratic camp” for his views on a making the tax code fairer, creating universal health care, and making college more affordable.

But, he said, “I’m not somebody who is just talking about government as a solution for everything. I also believe in personal responsibility, I also believe in faith.” Obama then talked about his faith-based initiative, which he spoke about last week in Ohio. “That’s not something new, I’ve been talking about that for years now. I’ve been, I’ve been organizing with churches for years in the community. And so the notion that somehow that’s me tying to look like I’m more centered - more centrist - is just not true,” he said.

Obama said he agreed “for years” with a recent Supreme Court ruling that said the Second Amendment gives people the individual right to bear arms. “That doesn’t mean that I also recognized that we need to make sure that we’ve decent controls over the use of firearms in our community. Those two potions are not contradictory,” he explained.

So what’s all the confusion about? According to Barack Obama, “One of the things you find as you go though this campaign, is everyone has become so cynical about politics. That the assumption is you must be doing everything for political reasons. And the message I want to send everybody is: you’re not going to agree with me on 100% of what I think but don’t assume that if I don’t agree with you on something that it must be because I’m doing that politically. I may just disagree with you. But we can agree on 90% of the things that are important and on those 10% we will agree to disagree.”

On Iraq, Obama repeated language he’s used during the course of his 17-month long campaign:

“I have also consistently said that once were in that we had to be as careful getting out as we were  careless getting in. Because once you get in now you’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe. You’ve got to make sure that the country doesn’t collapse. And so what I’ve called for is a phased withdraw, a phased redeployment. That is not precipitous, that is responsibly getting out combat troops out at a pace of about 1-2 brigades per month. And at that point we would have our troops out, our combat troops out in about 16 months.  Now assuming that I take office in January, then that means that we would have our – we would still have our troops there for about 2 more years from now…So when I hear John McCain saying ‘we can’t surrender’ ‘we can’t wave the white flag’ nobody’s talking about surrendering. We’re talking about common sense. We can not be there forever. We can’t be there for 50 years. We can’t afford it.  Our military families can’t bear that burden. We’ve got to get more troops into Afghanistan. I am going to bring this war to an end. So don’t be confused. I will bring the Iraq war to a close when I am president of the US of America.”

“I guess my question is why, given all the vast numbers of things that we’ve got to work on, that that would be a top priority of mine?” Obama said, responding to a reporter who asked the candidate why he hadn’t called on Wesley Clark to apologize for his remarks yesterday. “I’m happy to have all sorts of conversations about how we deal with Iraq and what happens with Iran but the fact that somebody on a cable show or on a news show like General Clark said something that was inartful about Sen. McCain I don’t think is probably the thing that is keeping Ohioans up at night,” he added.

Obama said he has not spoken to Clark since the retired four star general and Obama surrogate told CBS’ Bob Schieffer that he didn’t think “riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” although Clark has since said he’s spoken to campaign staffers about his statement.

Both the RNC and the McCain campaign have seized Clark’s “inartful” remarks, as Mr. Obama described it, and have sent out a flurry of statements and held conference calls to hammer home that because Obama did not ask Clark to apologize, then he is “either encouraging or tolerating his attacks on John McCain’s military service.”

Obama himself has railed against dirty politics on the campaign trail, but says General Clark’s comments didn’t have “the same intent” as the Swift Boat attacks that haunted John Kerry’s campaign in 2004.

LAS VEGAS, Nev — Barack Obama put some new spin on what’s become a familiar energy-related attack on the campaign trail — accusing John McCain of promoting an energy plan full of gimmicks that would do nothing to actually reduce the price of gas at the pump.

Speaking at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, a large park and water facility that’s a model of energy efficiency, Obama said McCain is “offering the same old gimmicks that will provide almost no short-term relief to folks who are struggling with high gas prices; gimmicks that will only increase our oil addiciotn for another four years.” Among them: McCain’s proposals for a federal gas tax holiday and his plan to open more offshore drilling.

Obama seemed incredulous that McCain himself acknowledged that more drilling wouldn’t effect the price of oil — but would have a positive “psychological” impact. “In case you were wondering, that’s Washington-speak for, ‘It polls well,’” he said. “Gimmicks like the gas tax holiday and offshore drilling might poll well these days.  But I’m not running for President to do what polls well, I’m running to do what’s right for America.”

Obama even ridiculed McCain’s plan to offer $300 million to anyone who can come up with a next generation car battery that would help lessen dependence on foreign oil — a plan his top political adviser David Axelrod seemed to back yesterday — calling it a bounty. “I commend him for his desire to accelerate the search for a battery that can power the cars of the future,” he said. “But I don’t think a [$300 million] prize is enough.  When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn’t put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win – he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project.”

The Illinois Senator also criticized his own party — saying he’s against more government so long as the energy progress can be made with less. “I’m a Democrat, and there have been times in the past when I think Democrats have gotten so regulation happy that we don’t think in terms of just efficiency,” he said. “Sometimes, Republicans attack us as just being in favor of government.”

“I’m not in favor of government just for the sake of government, there’s nothing inherent about government that makes me want to have more of it. I want enough government to do what needs to be done.”

“Al Gore I thought had some good ideas in terms of reinventing government,” he said. “Not all of them got implemented. I want reinventing government 2.0 under the Obama administration.

Obama responded to questions from reporters today on his unprecedented decision to opt out of the more than $80 million up for grabs in the public financing system - despite signing a pledge last year to do just that.

Obama today said that system was broken because of the amount of outside money pouring into campaigns from 527s, the national parties, lobbyists, and PAC’s. He believes the Republicans stand to benefit from outside groups. He’s still in favor of public financing in theory, however. “I am a sponsor of a public financing bill that can strengthen the system because I recognize not every presidential candidate may be able to do the same things that we’ve done in this campaign. And so my commitment to fixing the system remains, but in this campaign its my belief that in fact what we’ve built is something that frees ourselves from special interests and allows us to run an effective campaign as well,” he explained.

When a reporter explained that the amount of money coming into 527s and the RNC currently are minimal to John McCain’s campaign, Obama responded, “527s pop up pretty quickly and have enormous influence and we’ve seen them – there was an ad, one in South Dakota by Floyd Brown I think where it took a speech that I had made extolling faith and made it seem as if I had said that America was a Muslim nation. We’ve already seen attacks on my wife from the Tennessee Republican party. I don’t think that I am off the wall here to see that you know a lot of outside groups that are potentially going to be going after us hard. With respect to the RNC you’ve got Carly Fiorina who is McCain’s chairwoman saying, bragging about how much money the RNC is raising and how that money is going to be used to attack me and promote John McCain. So this isn’t speculative on my part.”

The McCain called Obama’s decision opportunistic yesterday - the underdog of February 2007 when he signed the pledge and the presumptive Democratic nominee have parted ways. Obama flipped the question and said McCain was “all over the map on public financing.” Said Obama, “At the beginning of this process, when I think they were projecting raising enormous amounts of money, he said we’d consider opting out of the system. Later when his campaign had collapsed for awhile, he said he was definitely in the public financing system. You know, I’m not gonna speculate on what we would have done, what I’m looking at is what we’ve been able to build.

”

Mayor Mike Bloomberg spoke to Jewish voters today in Boca Raton, Florida, to assure the community that both presidential candidates have expressed a commitment to Israel, and believe that Iran poses a threat to the nation.

Bloomberg, the Independent mayor of New York City who has yet to endorse a candidate (and has appeared at events alongside both candidates), had another reason for addressing Jewish voters. “Let’s make sure that we, as Jews and as voters, keep the conversation focused on the facts and not let it descend into false rumor and innuendo.”

Barack Obama  has been fighting  rumors that he is Muslim since he announced his candidacy. Occasionally voters would ask Obama on the trail if the allegation was true, forcing Obama to try to dispel them, which only amplified the story in the mainstream press. Just a few days ago, the campaign announced a new website dedicated to “fight the smears,” including snuffing out the Muslim myth.

Mayor Bloomberg today lashed out against emails circulating that push that message. “There are plenty of emails floating around the Internet targeting Jewish voters and saying that Senator Obama is secretly a Muslim, and a radical one at that.  Let’s call those rumors what they are: lies.  They are cloaked in concern for Israel, but the real concern is about partisan politics.  Israel is just being used as a pawn,” he said, adding the religion question is “wedge politics at its worst,” and asked the Jewish voters to “reject it – loudly, clearly, and unequivocally.”

Moreover, he said, such tactics will only exacerbate relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as with African Americans. “It threatens to undo the enormous strides that Jews and Muslims have made together in this country – and the enormous strides that Jews and African-Americans have made together,” he concluded.

Read his full remarks as prepared for delivery below the jump.

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Before Barack Obama was the presumptive Democratic nominee - before he was even the frontrunner - the then long-shot candidate signed a pledge in February 2007 that if he would accept public financing in the general election if the Republican nominee agreed to do the same.

The candidate touted this pledge in a candidate’s questionnaire from the Midwest Democracy Network in November of last year. He wrote, “In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election….If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

The candidate is opting out of some $84 million in public funds - he’ll be the first to do so since Congress passed the legislation in the 1970s. John McCain has recently taken steps to opt in and today his campaign jumped on Obama’s decision, saying he has “revealed himself to be just another typical politician who will do and say whatever is most expedient for Barack Obama.”

Of course Obama has raised more money than any other presidential candidate, raking in some $265 million (as of the end of April).

In a video taped message to supporters this morning, Obama made his announcement. “It’s not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections, but the public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system.”

The last time Obama was asked about the issue was just one day after he secured the Democratic nomination. He told reporters, “We’re not going to unilaterally disarm, and we’ve already had John McCain’s campaign finance chairman, for example, boast about the amount of money that’s been raised by the Republican National Committee that can be used to help John McCain and attack me. I was very clear at the outset that I would not put ourselves in a position where third parties and independent groups are outspending the Democrats by substantial margins, and John McCain - who’s now the leader of the Republican Party - is, you know I’m going to want to hear from him some assurances that we could actually shut that down.”

Watch Obama’s message to supporters here:

UPDATED: 3 pm ET (per Mosheh Oinounou)

Reporters shouted questions at Sen. Obama as he arrived and exited his meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus near Capitol Hill Thursday, but the presumptive Democratic nominee did not respond, choosing only to smile and wave at the assembled press.

In an interview with Nightline last night, Barack Obama cited the way the U.S. dealt with the suspects in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and noted that because the U.S didn’t do the same with current detainees at Guantanamo Bay, it “has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, ‘Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims.’ So that, I think, is an example of something that was unnecessary.”

The McCain campaign responded with a conference call, on which surrogates chastised Obama for being “extremely naïve,” an advocate for a “policy of delusion,” and having a “perfect manifestation of a September 10th mindset.”

“These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could’ve pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11,” Obama responded today to reporters on board his campaign jet. “In part because of their failed strategies, we’ve got bin Laden still sending out audio tapes and so I don’t think they have much standing to suggest that they’ve learned a lot of lessons from 9/11,” he continued.

Using 9/11 on the campaign trail is “fear mongering” on the part of Republicans, Obama insisted – the same tactic that got us into Iraq and has distracted us from the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. After all, he said, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that detainees at Guantanamo Bay should get habeas corpus.

“The question is whether or not, as the Supreme Court said, people who are being held have a chance to at least suggest, that, ‘Hey, you’ve got the wrong guy,’ or,  ‘I shouldn’t be here.’ It’s not a question about whether or not they’re free. And the simple point that I was making, which I will continue to make throughout this campaign, is that we can abide by due process and abide by basic concepts of rule of law and still crack down on terrorists. None of the folks that were speaking for McCain today have given us one bit of information that would suggest that as a consequence of the court’s ruling, terrorists will be able to attack America more effectively,” he said forcefully.

Obama described the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay a “black hole” devoid of accountability set up that way intentionally by the Bush administration. Obama would prefer to lock suspected terrorists up in military facilities on U.S. soil and while he does not advocate putting them on trail in a district court, he said, “What we need to be doing, is locking these folks up and where there are dangerous individuals, we have to create a system of due process where we can show that in fact they were dangerous.”

That system he maintains, will not give detainees “full blown rights,” but will involve due process. “We don’t have to treat them in the same way that we would treat a criminal suspect in the U.S., but we should abide by the Geneva Conventions. We should at least follow through on the same principles we followed through when dealing with Nazis during Nuremburg. That is not only the right thing to do, but it also actually will strengthen our ability over the long term to fight terrorism,” he explained.

The candidate then assured he would not be weak on terrorism. “I want to do everything we can to capture terrorists, incapacitate terrorists, kill them where that is the best approach that we can take, but I see no need for us to create a situation in which we’ve undermined our own ideals and our own institutions in a way which actually strengthens the ability of terrorists to recruit and engage in propaganda against the U.S.”

John McCain once again renewed his call for joint appearances with Barack Obama today, by reiterating his desire to hold joint town hall meetings together, including one next Thursday in Minneapolis as a way to “offer the best format for presenting both candidates’ visions for our country’s future in a substantive way.”

The Obama campaign, also amenable to the idea of sharing the stage, said in a statement, “Senator Obama believes that the American people deserve an open and accessible debate as they choose between real change and four more years of failed Bush policies, and he welcomed McCain’s invitation to offer voters ‘the rare opportunity of witnessing candidates for the highest office in the land discuss civilly and extensively the great issues at stake in the election.’”

So it would seem both sides agree that joint town halls seem to be a good idea. Let the debate begin!

Not so fast. While the two camps agree on the idea in theory, as a practical matter they’ve locked horns.

The two sides  just cannot agree on the number of joint appearances and when to hold them. While John McCain is offering ten such meetings, the Obama camp has seeking to meet five times between now and Election Day, “the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August,” the Obama camp spelled out.

“That package of five engagements would have been the most of any Presidential campaign in the modern era—offering a broad range of formats—and representing a historic commitment to openness and transparency,” they suggested.

In response, McCain’s campaign manager drafted a letter to Obama’s campaign manager and shared with the press. “At this moment, we fear that our negotiations over joint town hall meetings are turning into a debate about process. That is exactly what we have always hoped to avoid, and why we proposed a town hall format that would render many of these process issues moot,” the letter read.

Not to be outdone, the Obama camp chided McCain for rejecting their proposal. “It’s disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign decided to decline this proposal. Apparently they would rather contrive a political issue than foster a genuine discussion about the future of our country,” said campaign manager David Plouffe in a statement.

When McCain’s camp first floated the idea last month, Obama said he thought it was a good idea. Last week at a media availability in St. Louis, however, Obama admitted that it just wasn’t realistic to do all ten “given all the campaigning that I have to do since we just finished our primary election,” he explained.

McCain expressed disappointment in the Obama campaign’s proposal - which he said was one joint town hall to take place on the 4th of July. “Of all times, obviously that would be the least viewed,” McCain told reporters. A McCain spokesman went further and observed, “Barack Obama has more conditions for having a town hall with John McCain than he does for meetings with Mahmoud Amadinejad.”

When both candidates were invited to hold a joint town hall by outsiders Nancy Reagan, Lynda Johnson Robb, and Luci Baines Johnson, McCain was quick to accept. Obama’s campaign plans to stick to the five forums they proposed.