Gee, Obama seems rather debate-shy lately:

Barack Obama, in his first appearance on "FOX News Sunday," says there will be no more debates before the two May 6 primaries despite repeated challenges from Hillary Clinton to meet him face-to-face.

. . . .  Asked why he was repeatedly "ducking" Clinton's debate challenges before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Obama said, as he has before, that he just wants to spend time with voters.

"I'm not ducking. We've had 21 (debates), and so what we've said is, with two weeks, two big states, we want to make sure we're talking to as many folks possible on the ground taking questions from voters," he said, so no debates.

"We're not going to have debates between now and Indiana," he said.

Obama took a rapid-fire set of tough questions on his personal gaffes and controversies at the last ABC debate in Philadelphia before the Pennsylvania primary, which he lost.

Speaking in South Bend, Ind., Clinton taunted him a little, then proposed a compromise.

"You know, after the last debate in Philadelphia, Senator Obama's supporters complained a little bit about the tough questions. And you know, tough questions in the debate are nothing compared to the tough questions you get asked when you're president and you have to answer them to make tough decisions," she said.

"So here's my proposal: I'm offering Senator Obama the chance to debate me one-on-one, no moderators. Just the two of us, going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions. We'll set whatever rules seem fair."

She formalized the request in a letter to the campaign. But Obama strategist David Axelrod said: "I think if Lincoln-Douglas had debated 21 times, I don't think there would be much appetite for another Lincoln-Douglas debate."

Admittedly, 21 debates is a lot. What is that, one or two every month? Yet that makes a sudden halt to the debates even more conspicuous.

Now Obama is going to "just spend time with the voters."  Well, that will be exciting.  Maybe we'll have another string of fainting episodes.  What has it been, two months?  We're overdue.  It's almost as if people stopped fainting just about the time pundits started noticing.

Cross-posted at GINA COBB