John Boozman and Blanche Lincoln disagree with each other on a lot of things. Abortion. Earmarks. The Fair Tax. Debates.

Yup, debates. That would be the issue that has dominated the back-and-forth between the two campaigns this week.

It all started way back last Friday, at a debate of all places, when Boozman suggested appearing with Lincoln at a 3- or 4-hour town hall-style event, where the candidates would carry no notes and simply answer whatever questions the crowd asked. Lincoln, who is known for depending on her notes in debates, said she would like to accede to Boozman's request but would have to check with her staff (which, in politicspeak, usually means "No way").

After the debate, Lincoln apparently huddled with her campaign staff and decided that although she is the 2nd-most boring debater in the history of Arkansas politics, the only one more boring happens to be her current opponent. And, his lead in the polls is bigger than her entire support, meaning she has nothing to lose.

Ergo, she issued a press release expressing her excitement about Boozman's desire for a town hall debate, and proposing that they do one in each congressional district (that would be 4). Why not include Independent candidate Trevor Drown and Green candidate John Gray (who typically get left out of the whole debate thing)? she added.

Boozman, of course, didn't want to do that -- he had already done the Friday debate and a forum last month, and will also debate Lincoln, Drown, and Gray on AETN in October. With each of those debates taking an hour, plus four hours for each proposed town hall debate, that would be 19 hours of Boozman-Lincoln, which, though valuable, could violate state boredom regulations.

So he responded, Nope, you're talking about a town hall debate, and I'm talking about just a town hall. And, his campaign rep added later, we want to wait until Lincoln agrees to do a town hall before we think about doing four of them. (Didn't she already agree? Oh yeah, she said the word 'debate,' and we don't like that word.)

In the meantime, Trevor Drown accepted Lincoln's invitation while showing awareness that her inviting him wasn't exactly altruistic (if he and Gray attended the debates, it would take much of the focus off Lincoln and put more pressure on Boozman). Good for him.

Here's the bottom line:

Boozman wants to debate as little as possible, since the polls currently show him winning in a landslide and the only way Lincoln makes up enough ground is if he makes a major gaffe, which would be most likely to happen at a debate.

Lincoln needs Boozman to commit said gaffe, which is why she wants him to debate as much as possible. It's also why she asked an outrageous question last Friday about Boozman supposedly supporting the rights of rapists.

Both candidates are merely doing what they think puts them in the best position to win. What about giving the voters good opportunities to weigh all four of the U.S. Senate candidates against each other? Well, that just isn't high on the frontrunners' priority list.