Larry Eichel reports...

11:10 a.m. 

The final question comes from a newly-minted college graduate who says she's looking for a job and just realized that she doesn't have any health insurance. She wonders what would happen if she gets hit by a car. Obama says one element of his healthcare proposal would allow families to keep children on their plans until age 25. He also suggests that she be careful when she wanders the streets.

And he's outta here.

10:55 a.m. 

He also contrasts his tax proposals to those of McCain, saying that the Obama plan would be better for the bottom 95 percent of Americans on the income scale. And he's getting pretty animated after a slow start.

10:45 a.m.

Obama salutes Congressman Joe Sestak, in whose district this event is taking place and who initially was unnoticed on his arrival. Sestak, a retired admiral, was a very enthusiastic and outspoken supporter of Clinton during the primaries. This was no surprise; Sestak served in Bill Clinton's White House. 

10:35 a.m. 

Asked about the role of the Supreme Court in this election, Obama talks approvingly about the court's Guantanamo decision, which was handed down on Thursday. "John McCain thinks the court was wrong. I think the court was right." On the subject of abortion, Obama says the court is "just one justice away" from overturning Roe v. Wade. He says that Justice John Paul Stevens, a judge who favors abortion rights, probably wants to retire sometime soon. A woman in the audience pipes up, in keeping with the theme of this session, and says: "He can't afford to."

Says Obama: "This is going to be a major issue."  

10:30 a.m. 

Now it's Q & A time. First question is about retirement security, and Obama goes after McCain, saying he wants to "privatize Social Security" by allowing people to have private accounts. McCain says he favors voluntary private accounts for younger workers, which he says does not amount to "privatizing" the system. Obama wants to impose the payroll tax, which now applies to wages up to $102,000, to earned income over $250,000 as well. 

10:20 a.m. 

Obama blasts the proposal of Republican John McCain for a federal gas tax holiday for the summer as a gimmick and a stunt. He also blasted the idea during the primaries when Hillary Rodham Clinton supported a similar idea. The mood here is very quiet, almost somber. Obama's presentation so far is a low-key, Saturday morning kind of thing. He talks about his proposal for a middle-class tax cut and finally gets his first round of applause. He pledges to invest heavily in green energy. One reason this town hall was held here, at the new Radnor Middle School, is that this building was constructed with clean energy and energy conservation in mind. 

10:15 a.m. 

In his opening remarks, Obama talks about the middle-class squeeze and the rising cost of groceries, medicine and energy and how hard it is to save for the future. "It isn't an accident that gas prices are this high," he says, blaming the Bush administration's energy policy for the nation's failure to move more aggressively toward alternative energy. But the problem has been decades in the making, he says, due to the influence of special interests in Washington.

10:05 a.m.  

The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, is at the Radnor Middle School in Wayne for a small (150 or so), invitation-only town-hall meeting. The focus is expected to be on the price of gasoline.

Larry Eichel reports...

11:58 a.m. 

McCain promises, if elected, to expand the size of the military to lessen the pressure on the National Guard for overseas deployments. In response to a question, he talks about securing the borders first before the government deals with the illegal immigrants who are already here. The immigration issue has been a tough one for McCain, who is more prone than some other Republicans to grant permanent status to those who are already in the country. 

11:46 a.m. 

He gets a standing ovation from the crowd of about 1,000 when he talks about the need for "honor and victory" in Iraq. "I'll always put my country first," he says, closing his opening remarks, and gets another standing o. 

11:40 a.m. 

He reiterates his support for nuclear power as "a vital element" in achieving U.S. energy independence and in reducing greenhouse gases. "We can become independent of foreign oil in a shorter time than anyone's predicting today," he says.

11:32 a.m. 

McCain has proposed a series of ten town hall meetings with this Democratic counterpart, Barack Obama. Today, McCain says he's accepted invitations to have joint town halls at the Reagan Library in California and at the LBJ Library in Texas -- and wants to have one next week in Minnesota. He says he respects Obama but has stark differences with him.

The Republican candidate also denounces yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision giving legal rights to enemy combatants being held at Guantanamo, calling it "one of the worst decisions that I have ever seen" and says it will harm the nation's ability to protect itself. He notes that Obama supported the decision. 

11:20 a.m.

Actually, Lieberman introduces former Gov. Tom Kean, who introduces the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Also with McCain are Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former Navy Sec. John Lehman as well as Rep. Jim Saxton and senatorial candidate Dick Zimmer.

The Straight Talk Express has arrived at Burlington County College in Pemberton, NJ, and McCain is being introduced by Sen. Joe Lieberman.

View gallery

Thomas Fitzgerald reports: John McCain is making his basic stump speech at the top of a townhall meeting in the Constitution Center.

 11:49 a.m.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee opened a little bit ago by saying he was planning to contest Pennsylvania in the general election, though the state has gone Democratic in the past four presidential contests.

"We're going to go to the small towns of Pennsylvania and I'm going to tell them that I don't agree with Sen. Obama that they cling to religion and the constitution because they are bitter," McCain said. 

Barack Obama ran into trouble in the runup to the April 22 Pennsylvania primary when his remarks at a private fundraiser came to light saying that small-town state residents are angry and bitter at economic struggles and thus "cling" to guns and religion and fear of people different from them. (McCain's reference to the Constitution is of course to that document's Second Amendment, which deals with the right to bear arms.)

 11:57 a.m.

I'll keep posts to a minimum since we are live-blogging the event on philly.com. Call the blog entries a kind of Cliff Notes version of the town-hall.

McCain doesn't want to raise taxes, wants to bring back prosperity, understands the economy is tough. He jabbed Obama for proposing an increase in the capital gains tax rate, among other things. "Why in the world would anyone consider raising your taxes in the middle of tough times?" McCain said. "Why take your money and send it to Washington to spend on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it."

12:12 p.m.

McCain has been asked about international AIDS policy, how he can appeal to young people, how to provide equality in educational opportunity and why he supports lowering the federal tax rate for corporations among other things so far.

He wants the corporate tax rate to be 25 percent instead of the current 35 pct, the second highest in the world. "I don't view that as a 'break' for corporations, but as an incentive for investment in the United States of America" that creates jobs.

Though he is trying to distance himself from an unpopular president, McCain told a questioner that "we ought to give President and Laura Bush a little credit for their dedication" to fighting AIDS around the world.

12:23 p.m

Obama is for government-control of health care rather than his plan of tax breaks that enables people to amke their own choices.

"If you think the government can run health care, well visit some other bureaucracies in Washington before you sign on," McCain said.

12:33 p.m.

McCain said he does not believe the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge should be opened to oil exploration, in response to a question about the need to increase domestic oil supply.

"I wouldn't drill in the Grand Canyon, I wouldn't drill in the Everglades" either, McCain said, to applause. Chalk up another distancing from the White House. But in the next breath, McCain said he did favor "incentives" to allow more exploration for oil and natural gas off U.S. coasts.

12:37 pm

He's done. Now they are playing the Rocky theme, which is way overexposed. Maybe it's his way of reaching out to the disappointed supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who played the song incessantly during the Democratic primary here.

So how did Clinton end up second? Here's a take from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121252558317842545.html?mod=special_page_campaign2008_leftbox

Here's a very negative reaction to Clinton's speech from the Guardian in the UK:

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2008/06/no_shame_no_gain.html

And here's a thoughtful piece on how amazing it all is, given a long look at American history:

http://www.theroot.com/id/46740