It will look wimpy to morons. Folks who watched McCain destroy Obama at Saddleback and folks who watched McCain offer to debate Obama in one townhall meeting per week, which Obama ran from like a scalded cat, will know the truth.
McCain will kick Obamas ass when they debate and McCain will be a player in solving the current "crisis". Obama will be boning up on the foreign policy that McCain already knows backwards and forwards.
McCain needs to reply to this “afraid to debate” BS with that point, that Bambi turned down numerous offers to debate in townhall settings, where he wouldn’t have a helpful media moderator and would have to face real Americans. McCain’s campaign needs to make ads pounding that point, if Barry wants to go there.