Obama: Enough with the Debates! -- Obama has already attended seven Democratic debates, along with 19 candidate forums.

From TIME:

In a posting on the campaign's website, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe said that the eight additional debates to which his candidate has already agreed are sufficient, and that Obama wants to spend time talking to voters, rather than preparing for and participating in debates. "Unfortunately, we simply cannot run the kind of campaign we want and need to, engaging with voters in the early states and February 5, if our schedule is dictated by dozens of forums and debates," Plouffe said in his statement.

Like all the leading campaigns, Obama's team has felt some frustration at having their schedules tied up by the debates and forums already held. They have had to share the stage in those events with six or seven other candidates, allowing the candidates only a limited period to make an impression.

Of the remaining 2007 debates in which Obama will participate, five are so-called sanctioned events, endorsed by the Democratic National Committee on behalf of the candidates, in an attempt to limit the total number.

The situation for the Republican candidates is much different. They have fewer interest groups who demand that their candidates attend their debates, compared to the environmental, seniors, and African-American groups that Democrats risk alienating by turning them down. The Republican National Committee is not playing the sanctioning role that the DNC has taken on. And there are fewer mutually agreed-to debates for the remainder of the 2007 calendar.