Friday's Obama-McCain debate likely as bailout deal close

(UPDATE: McCain hunkering down in DC for the night).

Yesterday's back-and-forth over whether Friday's first presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama should occur while the nation is mired in economic crises appears moot. A bipartisan bailout deal for the nation's troubled financial firms appears increasingly likely to happen, and soon.

Congressional leaders from both parties have agreed in principle on the framework of a plan to fix Wall Street's financial crisis and protect the $700 billion in taxpayer money that could be at stake. There may still be some discord -- Rep. John Boehner said House Republicans have not signed off on the deal.

But leaders from both parties plan to meet with President Bush this afternoon to discuss the agreement, as well as Obama and McCain, who left the campaign trail to return to Washington to help craft an agreement.

What all this means for political junkies is that the debate scheduled Friday at the University of Mississippi is likely to occur.

Yesterday, McCain halted his campaign and called for the debate to be postponed, but his staff earlier today told reporters traveling with the candidate to be ready to fly to Mississippi tonight.

(UPDATE: McCain staying in DC tonight; no future travel plans have been made, per campaign staff.)

The Commission on Presidential Debates, which vowed yesterday the debate would continue as scheduled, must be relieved. But perhaps no one will be happier than the University of Mississippi, which has spent $5.5 million to prepare for the debate, and is counting on the moment in the national spotlight to show its history as a violent, racist institution is well in the past.

-- Seema Mehta

Photo credit: Susan Walsh / Associated Press

Comments

[DEMOCRAT now IND]

Obama has already lined the pockets of his empty suit with the answers to the debate. Considering Obama has NEVER done anything his entire adult life but run for office, Obama sees this debate as his job. To hell with the U S economic crisis. That is not part of running for office, that is actually working.

[Tim]

Obama can handle a debate AND handle his part of the economic crisis at the same time.

McCain is too dumb to do both.

[Andrew]

Looks like they did the deal before McCain even got there, so I guess he won't be able to claim credit for any of it. It will be interesting to see if he tries to anyway.

It also looks like his ploy to avoid the debate fell flat on its face, so he'll have to face the music Friday and do the debate. Poor old John!

[Cate]

McCain needs to clam up and do the debates, he already pressed for fewer of them in the first place. We are 40 days away from the election and we still haven't seen these two speak head-to-head... scary.

McCain returning to Washington did not change the direction or tone of those talks, and continued presence will not change them either. It's a waste of time and a political power play for him to be there. No matter what, talks will suspend for the weekend and McCain can hightail his butt to Mississippi and face the music.

All we've heard for the last 3 days is 1) Palin is hard to get to and does not answer questions that are not prepared ahead of time, AND 2) McCain doesn't want to debate. Way to be free and open to the public, GOP. And you wonder why so many don't trust you.

[Paul]

I just called my Rep., Congressperson Susan Davis, to express my disapproval of this ridiculous bail out.

If the banks are suffering because people are walking away from their outrageous mortgages, then use that $700 billion to make the mortgages for these people more reasonable. Don't just hand it over to the banks. We're NOT going to get our money back. The people who run these businesses will find a way to fleece the companies until they die, Enron style. The government can't collect debt from a dead corporation.

This is a fire, and we're trying to suppress it. You know what happens when you over suppress fire in a region right? You get firestorms like those in California. If we try to save these companies, then this will just happen all over again and next time the fire will be BIGGER.

[tlsmith1963]

I'm a Democrat who hates the idea of a bailout, but my stepfather pays close attention to the stock market & says the economy really is in trouble. What angers me is that the Republicans announced the need for the bailout out of the blue & said we have 5 days to pass this, or the economy will tank. Why didn't they tell us this earlier? They hardly give people any time to debate this or come up with better ideas? They rushed the Iraq War through, too. I'm sick of being played by these Republican jerks. I want them out of power for a long time. My frazzled nerves need a rest.

[Chuck]

You should be upset with the Democrats. McCain did warn us years ago that this would happen. Remember it was the likes of Frank and Dodd who are owned by these corporations that killed any efforts to act early.

[John Quimby]

McCain isn't president yet.

Neither is Obama.

Unfortunately, we already have a President.