Will the debate go on?

It’s still unclear whether John McCain and Barack Obama will go head-to-head tonight at their first scheduled presidential debate at Ole Miss.

While both men are still in Washington to take part in the negotiations over the $700 billion bank bailout package, Obama said he plans to travel to the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where the debate is supposed to begin at 9 PM EDT. McCain, who wanted to delay the debate until after the financial crisis has been averted, hasn’t yet committed.

"I’m very hopeful that we’ll get enough of an agreement tomorrow so we can make this debate," McCain said Thursday on NBC’s "Nightly News."
Obama has argued that presidents should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, and that in this case, they can handle a 90-minute debate and deal with the financial crisis simultaneously.

"Sen. McCain has no need to be fearful about a debate," Obama told reporters. "He’s a person of strong opinions and he’s been expressing them on the campaign trail."

"I think he knows that I’m going to be there," he later told ABC.

McCain has said he’s hopeful a deal can be reached on the bailout so that he can attend the debate.

"There are a variety of concerns, I think a lot of them have been satisfied," McCain said on ABC’s "World News Tonight" after Thursday’s meeting with President Bush, McCain, Obama, and other key lawmakers working on the deal. "And I believe and I’m hopeful that we can satisfy all of them and move forward very quickly. They are aware of the urgency."

"I understand how important this debate is and I am hopeful," McCain said on ABC News.

The independent Commission on Presidential Debates said yesterday that it is "moving forward" with its plans for the face-off.

ABC News reports that if McCain fails to show up, officials are mulling turning the first presidential debate into a town hall meeting where Obama takes questions from the audience and from the debate moderator PBS’s Jim Lehrer.

McCain campaign officials told ABC that they haven’t decided yet as to whether the Arizona senator will be there. Asked about the possibility of Obama holding a town hall meeting, McCain aides said, "sounds kind of interesting."