i sure hope someone points out the glaring hypocrisy in all this. What a sham for mcain to pull this kind of crap!! Wake up, America!!

Go to a bipartisan meeting you've demanded and help blow it up into a partisan slug fest. Then stand over the pieces of a broken deal and say "Look how good I fixed it."

He really is very much like Bush

At the pre-debate handshake, Barack should lean over and whisper: "Relax. Letterman isn't here."

HE DIDN"T SAY ANYTHING AT THE MEETING!

this is a crap.

EVERYBODY smelled this from a mile away.

McLiar is beyond pathetic.His attempt to appear as the white knight sweeping into Washington to save the day was a flat out failure as everything went haywire when he got there and there is no deal in place. Now they are trying to save face. CNN just announced that Debate Commission will allow a townhall meeting for Obama if McCain doesn't show up.

So he flew to Washington, injected presidential politics into the deal, got it blown up by the Republicans, caused more problems than existed before he showed up, and then rode away.

A metaphor for his Presidency (and Bush really)

McCain just came into town to insert a 2 year capital gains holiday into the bill - because Republicans don't want their rich buddies to have to pay for the bailout. Please tell me the Dems won't fall for this!

The latest line from the Right is that if McCain refuses to go, there might be an effort to shut the debate down as an illegal campaign contribution to Obama.

I honestly think that most people will see McDuck's antics as completely unecessary - just done to create more drama with no positive impact.

For the more savvy voters from any corner, I think they will see it as bat shit crazy boding very badly for him and his candidacy.

Although he may have bucked Bush, he is nevertheless just as volatile and uninformed as Bush has ever been. In that light, he is indeed beyond just "more of the same."

For what's it's worth, Bush has a life after the WH. McCain, if elected, will die there.

I think someone just blinked. I wonder how Palin's going to react?

Just what our country needs at a time of crisis: a flailing, erratic leader. Well done Mr. McCain.

Let's not forget, this is a man who has missed 592 of 3720 votes in the last two years. And he's the one that is getting congress moving again (after they've been working 16 hours days for a week)??

I seriously need a vacation. I'm booking my tickets for Reality Land.

I can't believe how badly McCain underestimated Obama. Did he really think Obama was going to agree to cancel the debate?

Besides looking completely out of control, McCain has managed to hurt himself in other ways as well. The fact of the matter is that McCain can't really do two things at once and this is going to seriously throw him off his game. He really needed all the debate prep he could squeeze in. His bouncing around from interview to interview and city to city doesn't really help him.

And now the press is ENRAGED at him. Not just miffed. Seriously pissed.

This is going to blow up in McCain's face.

The narrative the McCain wants people to believe is preposterous on its face: "John McCain suspended his campaign because he puts country ahead of politics. He selflessly went to Washington and single-handedly saved our financial markets." I'm not sure how you even begin to tone that down to make it work for McCain. He has to claim that he acted apolitically. He has to claim that he played a crucial role in the negotiations. If not, he looks like a total jerk.

The problem of course is that only the most partisan believe a word of it. Undecided voters are going to look at this fiasco and supply the obvious counter-narrative: "John McCain suspended his campaign because he was afraid that he was starting to slip in the polls and he needed to throw another Hail Mary. He went down to Washington and either did nothing, or maybe made things worse."

At the end of the day, McCain has seriously eroded his own narrative of being for "Country First" and of being the candidate of experience and judgment.

Ok, McSame has decided this morning to head to Ole Miss. As I am writing this, it is reported that his team is packing to leave DC.
So far McSame's only defense against the "mistake," "spoiler," and "bad bet" that Democrats and some Republicans including Huckabee characterized for his opportunist venture in Washington has been: if only "Obama had agreed to 10 or more town hall meetings," a line that he has been inserting in every interview he gave since Wednesday evening. He believes this one-liner will neutralize any criticism thrown at him.

I would love to be wrong about the reaction of the media. Maybe the new emerging narrative about McCain is stronger than the old one, but it was just 4 weeks ago today that they were telling us about how wonderful Palin was based solely on the word of the McCain camp.

Either way, Obama is a chess player and I expect that whatever he does tonight will be two moves ahead of whatever anyone is expecting. One of the things that he does very well is to put out memes that become very powerful only after they've sunk in. Heck, he spent the better part of 2007 allowing Hillary to build herself as the experienced, establishment candidate and then used that momentum to turn her into "the same old same old."

but it was just 4 weeks ago today that they were telling us about how wonderful Palin was based solely on the word of the McCain camp

Come the hell on - please. There was an anti-Palin piece in NRO this morning and it's not the first. Katie Couric actually, for Katie, conducted a brutal interview of Palin.

If y'all want to stubbornly hold on to the past, there's nothing I can do about it. But dayum, people - I thought we were reality based, not ideology clingers.

If McLiar doesn't show up the event will proceed as a townhall meeting with Obama

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/26/plan-b-proposed-for-mississippi-debate/

Obama is leaving for Mississippi at 11.00am.

Obama Blasts McCain's "Political Stunt

"John McCain sought to change the subject from his out-of-touch response to the economic crisis with a big announcement that he was 'suspending' his campaign. But the only thing McCain really wants suspended is the American people's disbelief. In fact, he's been in full campaign mode the entire time...

"When McCain finally arrived in Washington, almost twenty-four hours after his announcement -- and after Congressional leadership announced a deal in principle -- he huddled with his lobbyist campaign advisors while his running mate held a political rally and his political spokesmen and surrogates were out in full force, continuing to attack Barack Obama.

"So make no mistake: John McCain did not 'suspend' his campaign. He just turned a national crisis into an occasion to promote his campaign. It's become just another political stunt, aimed more at shoring up the Senator's political fortunes than the nation's economy. And it does nothing to help advance this critical legislation to protect the American people during this time of economic crisis."

I'll say this: Republicans across the country are reeling, though I'm sure they will pretend otherwise, from McCain's antics over the past few days. McCain revealed himself for the coward he's become, and the Repubs are now cowards by proxy. McCain ruined the Republicans last claim--the idea that they are tough and brave. What a disgraceful bunch!

I don't know about others, but I had a sense that "No debate until the Deal" was a publicity stunt, free media coverage to sell "Country First" slogan, but it did not take long to find out the motive, and it certainly backfired.
And once again Obama campaign was on time to highlight McSame's desperate attempt.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux reports that debate officials at the University are now "back-timing" McCain's flight plan, trying to predict whether he'll attend by checking to see if he leaves Washington soon enough to make it. They're convinced he'll be there. I don't see any way he can avoid it without looking like a spineless weasel. So much for the "maverick" image.

Dana Bash just said that campaign officials have now told her that "Senator McCain believes that sufficient progress has been made" and that he now "feels comfortable" attending the debate.

McCain's on the case. This nation owes him an enormous debt of gratitude for riding in on a white horse and saving this deal that was already near completion.

Dana Bash just said that McCain officials told her that they "realize they need to get McCain out of town" because the perception is he's doing more harm than good.

Tena -
Not digging myself out of anything... And I'm not sure why our exchanges have to get personal.

Even as an Obama supporter I may switch based on the Country First selfless leadership of John McCain. He should open by saying: "Given the upset last night of USC, the SEC is now poised to take over leadership in the college polls and therefore the SEC Chaiman no longer needs to be fired and the crisis is over. That is why I am is very happy to be in the heart of SEC country at OleMiss tonight, and that even though the Rebs are having an up and down season, so has their flag for over a century." But what do I know.