Edge in tonight's anti-forum goes to Sen. McCain

I don't know why they call the non-encounters -- between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain -- "forums". They're everything a forum is not supposed to be, particularly in separating the main players as Obama wants.

Tonight's CNN telecast was on public service. And the first 45 minutes featured McCain and second went to Obama. The only time the two met was when Obama came on stage and McCain left.

It was sad to devote so much time to an issue that would only need to take eight minutes in a debate or real forum. The moderators stretched their questions to try and cover the war on terror and the economy in recession. But the questions didn't work.

The two high moments of the night went to McCain.

First, the senator said he would make Obama part of his administration to lead public service. And he would meet him daily to talk on the topic, just down from the hall from his office in White House. Obama wouldn't make the same guarantee if he won for McCain, instead choosing to joke around it.

Second, McCain spoke directly to someone like me and my cousins, who learned of how our fathers served proudly and courageously in WWII. Some of our cousins now serve in the war on terror.

McCain said some of the greatest patriots he has met are the newest people to this country. And he noted a Fourth of July event in which soldiers with green cards took the oath of American citizenship in Baghdad.

That comment said a lot about his heart, even though his comments during the campaign to secure his conservative base have been less than charitable to the newest people to this country.

On the matter of energizing the campaign, Obama has seemed to have lost the spark, even though he appeared before a very positive crowd at Columbia University. Something is missing. Tonight's non-forum on public service should have been a home run for him. It wasn't.

Instead, McCain dazzled with talking of the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps and his time in many foreign countries and his service with different people in the military. And a mildly surprised Obama was reminded by one of the moderators that McCain had already given the answer he had just delivered on a specific public service topic.

Perhaps, as supporters of Sen. Hillary claimed in the primary campaign, Obama has really only one speech that he has given since Iowa, then in Berlin and finally in Denver. It's time to bring in a new speech writer at least.

For now, still many days from Nov. 4, McCain remains in a better, more energized position with his campaign. And that's a shocker in itself.

As David Gergen said later on CNN, McCain is going to be very tough in the one-one-debates.