John McCain will be attending the debate tonight

No, I don't have any connections to anyone in the McCain campaign, nor has the campaign said that its candidate would be appearing. [edit: the campaign has now said he will appear] However, the consensus view emerging about his "suspending the campaign" is that it is nothing more than a crass political stunt, making a no-show at the debate a very dangerous proposition for McCain.

McCain's stunt began to go awry when he bailed on Letterman at the last minute in order to "fly back to Washington" to handle the crisis, but instead of leaving, went to the CBS studios to do an interview with Katie Couric. Letterman's cut to McCain having makeup applied as he sits in front of Couric exposed McCain's stunt, revealing him to be a liar concerned only about his political fortunes. Jump to about 6:50 on this clip and watch for yourself:



Moreover, the media has noticed this stunt, and made the connection to the last time McCain pulled a similar trick, back in 1999 by postponing the announcement of his candidacy because it was "not appropriate at th[e] time to launch a political campaign." Yeah, right. He scored a big win that time, dominating the media while appearing to put his country before politics.

This time, however, the gambit hasn't worked so well. 86% of Americans think that the debates should go on. Obama's response, that a president should be able to "do more than one thing at a time," was right on target, painting McCain as weak if he he can't handle it all. Although McCain will appear weak if he blinks and attends the debate, the alternative is far worse. The stage is set, the news media, and Barack Obama, will be in Mississippi, and if McCain is a no-show, the event will become a nationally televised campaign event for the Obama. For a preview of where this could go, one only need to look to this clip of Sen. Barbara Boxer bringing up McCain's experience with bank failure, ala being one of the Keating 5:



In fact, I'm surprised that every democrat isn't saying something like this every time a camera is present. Here's a quip that ought to be drummed into the heads of Americans: "John McCain has a lot of experience with banking failures; causing them that is. He was a member of the Keating 5, and his campaign manager is a lobbyist whose firm was on Fannie and Freddies' payroll right up until they were taken over."

Of course, if McCain shows, he will likely be eviscerated, but at least he has a chance to go down fighting.

UPDATE:

Looks like McCain recognizes that he has no good choice, and is going to honor his commitment: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/26/politics/p005508D02.DTL