A short while ago it was announced that John McCain would participate in the debate planned tonight at the University of Mississippi.  Both McCain and Obama are getting ready to fly out of Washington shortly.

McCain believes, evidently, that enough progress is being made that he can afford to take some time away from this crisis.  Nothing further seems to have been said regarding the continued suspension of his campaign.

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As an aside, it seems that some people are confused by what “suspending the campaign” is supposed to mean.  What should clearly be understood here is that he is canceling campaign rallies and interviews that had been planned so that he can focus his time on working with Congress through the financial debacle that is threatening to shutdown our economy.

Some have contended that he should have pulled all of his TV and radio advertising.  Why?  That would be counterproductive and costly.  It makes no sense to pull the ads.  The only thin that makes sense is to cancel the events and get to Washington, as he has done.  By declaring that he was suspending the campaign, that’s what he meant, and any sensible person could easily understand.

What is amusing is that when there isn’t anything substantive to criticize, people will tend to go after the minutia.  The only things that are important at this juncture, with regard to the economic crisis and the reaction of the candidates, are:

• What is the right/best course to take?
• What kind of leadership role will the candidates take?

Everything else, at this point, is just noise.