Senator John McCain’s campaign said Friday morning that he will attend tonight’s debate with Senator Barack Obama at the University of Mississippi, reversing his earlier call to postpone the debate so he could participate in the Congressional negotiations over the $700 billion bailout plan for financial firms.

Moments after Senator McCain ended several of days of suspense and announced that he would participate in the debate after all, the doors of his campaign plane were opened and the steps were down, as Mr. Obama’s 757 idled nearby on the runway at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington.

Senator Obama finished a round of telephone calls with Congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. before leaving Washington to prepare for the first presidential debate of the general election. He arrived in Memphis about 12:30 p.m. CDT, and made his way to Mississippi for a walk-through of the debate hall.

“My strong sense is that the best thing that I can do, rather than to inject presidential politics into some delicate negotiations, is to go down to Mississippi and explain to the American people what is going on and my vision for leading the country over the next four years,” Mr. Obama told reporters aboard his plane. “I’m looking forward to the debate and look forward after the debate to coming back to Washington and hopefully getting a package done.”

Aides to Mr. McCain said he also planned to return to Washington after the debate if there is no consensus in sight in the bailout deal.

Mr. Obama said he was encouraged by the Congressional negotiations underway on the government’s bailout package of the nation’s financial institutions, and “optimistic” at the prospects for a deal.

“I think that there is real progress being made this morning and last night,” Mr. Obama said. “I think it’s important that the markets seem to be staying relatively calm at this point.”

Asked whether the White House meeting on Thursday was a mistake, Mr. Obama said, “I’m not sure that it was as productive as it could have been, but I think at this point, it’s important just to move forward.”

The discussion will resume later in Oxford, Miss., where the debate begins at 9 p.m. E.D.T.

But as both candidates departed Washington for Mississippi, the campaigns traded accusations over the effect that the presence of Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain had on the complex negotiations.

The McCain campaign struck first, saying: “The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent during the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama’s priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands. John McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners.”

A short time later, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, accused Mr. McCain of using the financial crisis to“advance his campaign.”

“He was in New York on Wednesday afternoon,” Mr. Axelrod said in an interview on MSNBC. “He said: ‘I’m suspending my campaign and flying to Washington.’ Then he did a series of interviews, stuck around to make a political speech in the morning, and finally showed up in Washington at noon at a time when there appeared to be a deal at hand,” Mr. Axelrod said, “and all that happened was the waters got roiled and we had some political theater. That’s not what we need right now.”

Mr. McCain had thrown preparation for the debate into turmoil on Wednesday afternoon after he announced that he intended to suspend campaigning — including participating in first of three nationally televised presidential debates — to be in Washington for the negotiations. His campaign issued a statement Friday morning saying he was now "optimistic" that a bipartisan bailout agreement would soon be reached, citing "significant progress" in the talks.

Mr. Obama said all along that he expected the debate to go on as planned.

In Oxford, McCain and Obama aides continued to prepare for the debate, according to two members of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonpartisan group that is sponsoring the three presidential and one vice-presidential debates.

The two commission members said that all along they had been operating under the assumption that the debate would be held, noting that the Republican governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, an ally of Mr. McCain’s, was among those privately expressing confidence that the Arizona senator would show up.

If Mr. McCain had not, the commission members were at a loss to say what might have transpired in Oxford . Obama aides said on Friday morning that the Illinois Democrat would probably have been at Ole Miss whether Mr. McCain was there or not. But whether he would have participated in a one-on-one exchange with the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, was unclear, the commission members said.

They said that the commission had not been inclined to hold an event in place of the debate that was seen as favoring Mr. Obama over Mr. McCain, but they added that it would have been Mr. McCain’s fault — not the commission’s — if some sort of televised forum had been held on Friday night that featured Mr. Obama alone.

President Bush and congressional negotiators said Friday morning that they were resuming talks on the proposed bailout, and Mr. Bush delivered a statement outside the Oval Office expressing confidence that an agreement would be reached. Congressional aides said that they did not expect any votes to take place on Friday — a point that Obama aides noted in saying that they saw no reason the debate could not take place.

Mr. McCain spent Friday morning in Washington meeting with House Republican leaders and some of his allies in the Senate, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, accompanied by his top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and his friend, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina.

After 15 minutes the group moved to the office of Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader. From there, Mr. McCain returned to his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va.

As for Mr. Obama, he completed a round of morning calls with congressional leaders, administration officials and his economic advisors in Washington, then took off for Memphis.

Obama said his Republican rival has been a loyal supporter of the unpopular president across the past eight years, adding that the current economic crisis is "a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain."

"And we can't afford another four," he added moments later.

The two men stood behind identical wooden lecterns on the stage of a performing arts center at the University of Mississippi for the first of three scheduled debates with less than six weeks remaining until Election Day. The two vice presidential candidates will meet next week for their only debate.

The 47-year-old Obama is seeking to become the nation's first black president. McCain, 72, is hoping to become the oldest first-term chief executive in history — and he made a few jokes at his own expense.

"I've been around a while," he said at one point. "Were you afraid I couldn't hear you?" he said at another after Obama repeated a comment.

Moderator Jim Lehrer's opening question concerned the economic crisis gripping Wall Street. While neither man committed to supporting bailout legislation taking shape in Congress, they readily agreed lawmakers must take action to prevent millions of Americans from losing their jobs and their homes.

Both also said they were pleased that lawmakers in both parties were negotiating on a compromise.

But they clashed over spending, taxes, energy and war in the first half of the 90-minute encounter.

McCain jabbed at Obama, saying he had requested millions of dollars in pork barrel spending, including some after he began running for president.

As he does frequently while campaigning, the Republican vowed to veto any lawmaker's pork barrel project that reaches his desk in the White House. "You will know their names and I will make them famous," he said.

The debate unfolded at a particularly tumultuous point in the campaign, with Bush and Congress struggling to avert a full-blown financial crisis.

McCain announced he would suspend his campaign earlier this week to return to Washington and take part in meetings on the crisis. Initially, he said he would not debate unless lawmakers had reached an agreement.

He reversed course earlier in the day, deciding to attend the debate, then return to the capital later.

The stakes were high as the two rivals walked on stage. The polls gave Obama a modest lead and indicated he was viewed more favorably than his rival when it came to dealing with the economy. But the same surveys show McCain favored by far on foreign policy.

Both men are veteran debaters after winning their respective presidential nominations. Obama debated former rival Hillary Clinton more than a dozen times, while McCain stood on stage with his Republican rivals in numerous states.

Both candidates have been rehearsing extensively, Obama prepping with advisers at a resort in Clearwater, Fla., and McCain putting in debate work at his home outside Washington.

The two presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate twice more, at Belmont University in Nashville on Oct. 7 and at Hofstra University in Hempsted, N.Y., on Oct. 15. Vice presidential contenders Sarah Palin and Joe Biden are to square off in a single debate Oct. 2 at Washington University in St. Louis.

In 1968, the American Independent Party nominated former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, as its presidential candidate and retired Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay as the vice presidential candidate. Wallace ran on every state ballot in the 1968 U.S. Presidential Election. Wallace did not represent the American Independent Party in all fifty states. In Connecticut, for instance, he was listed on the ballot as representing the "George Wallace Party." The 1968 presidential ticket received 13.5 percent of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes.

In 1969, representatives from 40 states established the American Party as the successor to the American Independent Party. (In some places, such as Connecticut, the American Party was officially constituted as the American Conservative Party.) The official party flag adoption took place on August 30, 1970. The flag depicts an eagle holding a group of arrows in its left talons, over a compass rose, with a banner which reads "The American Independent Party" at the eagle's base. In 1972, the party nominated former Congressman John G. Schmitz of California for president and Tennessee author Thomas Jefferson Anderson for vice president. In 1976, the American Party split into the more moderate American Party, which included more northern conservatives and Schmitz supporters, and the American Independent Party, which focused on the deep South. Both of the parties have nominated candidates for the presidency and other offices. Neither the American Party nor the American Independent Party has had much national success.

The American Independent Party has had ballot status in the state of California since 1968 and is still active there. As of May 2008, AIP's registration total was 331,619.

In the early 1980’s, Bill Shearer led the American Independent Party into the Populist Party. Since 1992, the American Independent party has been the California affiliate of the national Constitution Party, formerly the U.S. Taxpayers Party.

Many political analysts have theorized that the Party, which has received very few votes in recent California elections, maintains its state ballot status because people join the Party mistakenly believing that they are registering as an "independent," also known as a "non-partisan" or "decline-to-state" voter.

One such voter was Jennifer Siebel, fianceé of San Francisco's liberal Democratic mayor Gavin Newsom; in 2008, Siebel attempted to change her party affiliation from Republican to Non-Partisan, but "checked the American Independent box thinking that was what independent voters were supposed to do," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

According to Third Party Watch,the AIP split into two factions in June or July of 2008: one recognizing Jim King as chairman of the AIP while the other, recognizing Ed Noonan as chairman, claims the old AIP Website address while the King organization claims the AIP blog address. Ed Noonan's faction held a convention in Sacramento on July 5, 2008.

Less than 24 hours after the bill to bailout the financial industry died an ignominious -- and surprising -- death in the House of Representatives, both presidential candidates are jockeying to find their footing in a new political reality.

Barack Obama was first out of the gate this morning with a two-pronged approach: a new proposal to increase the cap on federally insured bank deposits from $100,000 to $250,000 and a new two-minute television ad in which he seeks to make the case that he, and not John McCain, is ready and able to lead the country out of its current financial morass.

McCain, in an appearance this morning on "Fox and Friends," offered a few proposals of his own including: the same increase on FDIC insurance on deposits proposed by Obama, tapping the "exchange stability fund" at Treasury for $250 billion to shore up financial institutions and urging Treasury to use the $1 trillion at its disposal to start buying bad mortgages in hopes of turning the corner on the current crisis.

The flurry of activity this morning speaks to the huge political consequences of the ongoing battle to rescue the economy. Nearly every American is now paying attention and worried about the impact of the failure of the bailout on their own lives. In polling released by the Washington Post and ABC News this morning, more than nine in ten voters said they were worried that the failure of the bill could cause even more serious economic problems down the line.

And, despite the fact -- as we have noted before -- that neither Obama nor McCain can do really do much to change the financial direction of the country, there's little doubt judging from their words and actions this past week that each candidate believes that voters are looking to them for solutions.

While the proposals this morning are a start, The Fix chatted with a number of Democratic and Republican strategists to solicit their ideas on what more (or less) Obama and McCain could do to "win" this issue with just 35 days left before the election.

The best of their thoughts, and some of our own, are below. Agree or disagree? Have thoughts of your own? Offer them in the comments section below.

MCCAIN

• Go Negative: Many Republican strategists believe there is simply no way for McCain to win an economic-focused election by touting his own plans to turn things around. "Go totally negative and don't let up until election day," advised Ed Rogers, a longtime Republican strategist and lobbyist. "This election needs to be about Obama and what a liberal he is. Period." Another Republican operative added: "Start attacking Obama's character relentlessly (again) if the McCain campaign has any hope of regaining the initiative.... It's not like there isn't plenty out there." The Republican National Committee seems to be following that advice with a new ad from its independent expenditure wing that savages Obama on his proposal to spend $1 trillion more on new programs; "Obama's spending plan: It'll make the problems worse," reads white writing on a black screen at the ad's close.

• Stay out of Washington: McCain's initial campaign suspension gambit is widely seen in Republican circles as a failure. Don't repeat it. The more McCain reminds voters that he is "of Washington" the worse this issue plays. Always remember that less than one in five Americans approve of the job Congress is doing and a similar number believe the country is on the right track. "I don't think he should return to Washington because that just reminds and re-chatters that he returned to Washington the first time and didn't get it done," said one GOP strategist.

• Persuade Privately: McCain's very public role in the negotiations blew up in his face last week. So, take the opposite tact; go underground -- organize private meetings with GOP House leaders out of the public eye to convince them of what is at stake if no bill is passed. The blame game seems to be falling inordinately on Republicans -- particularly House Republicans -- at the moment and that is bad for the GOP up and down the ticket. (Fifty-four percent of Fixistas said House Republicans should bear the blunt of the blame in our decidedly unscientific poll last night.) "Stay out of the negotiating squabble," argued on Republican consultant. "Stay quiet publicly if rumors leak out of any overt 'involvement' in them."

• Summit It: Take the lead in calling for a summit between himself, Obama and their top five economic advisers. Leave Congress out of it. Hope -- and do everything you can to ensure -- that a plan emerges from that high-level summit. If the two presidential candidates can get together on a plan, it's hard to imagine that Congress would balk at the proposal. Of course, after yesterday's vote, anything is possible.

• Moveon.org: Under the belief that this issue cannot be won, stay in the background and hope that a solution is found sooner rather than later. McCain's attempt to be the "man in the arena" flopped last week and that should be a sign that this is an absolute no-win for the Arizona senator. "The bottom line politically is McCain needs this behind him as soon as possible," said Phil Musser, a Republican consultant and former executive director of the Republican Governors Association. "Every day we are in this limbo where top line messaging lies well beyond our control . . . is a bad news day for us."

OBAMA

• Do Nothing: The desire for change in Washington has been growing almost by the day since the financial crisis began nearly two weeks ago. To date, Obama has largely adopted a hands off approach, refusing to be baited by McCain's call to suspend his campaign last week and postpone the debate. And, it's worked. Public and private polling has shown an Obama rise/McCain drop in recent days -- as the average voter seems to be reacting more positively to Obama's sober approach to the crisis than McCain's more frenzied strategy. "Putting aside substance, the politics of this favor Obama so he doesn't have to do much, if he doesn't want to," said one Democratic consultant.

• Summit It: The only suggestion that cropped up in our conversations with both Democrats and Republicans was the convening of a bipartisan summit led by Obama and McCain. "[Obama] should call McCain and the two of them should convene a private unity summit for Republicans and Democrats to come together to hash out an acceptable final product," said Phil Singer, a former senior official for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "They should make it clear that in the interest of producing a bill, they will play no role in the process -- so as not to politicize things further."

• Reintroduce the Stimulus Package: A bill aimed at providing the economy a shot in the arm passed the House last week but has been held up in the Senate. Obama, according to several Democratic sources, should re-introduce the bill and demand its passage as a necessary momentum-builder for an economy badly in need of some good news. "Obama should say we need to make sure that Main Street is a part of this effort and not passing the stimulus is a mistake," argued one Democratic strategist. "It makes McCain go on the defensive and [he] would have to come back and vote for it -- would be horrible if he voted against it." _{http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185304443/bctid1825806411}