So about that debate

Bob Gibbs tells the AP: "My sense is there's going to be a stage, a moderator, an audience and at least one presidential candidate."

So if McCain boycotts Friday's event in a huff, Obama just gets to go up and take questions from the moderator(s) alone? And if so...holy shit, that's basically giving him another convention: free media, guaranteed record ratings, no one to call him out on anything. Then again, Obama didn't exactly shine at Saddleback (though that was mainly because McCain was able to set up a contrast that worked against Obama), and this would be largely the same format, minus the wacko audience and batshit fundie interviewer. Another potential downside--the famous "optics" contrast would get 1/3 less air time, but I'm pretty sure this was going to be a sit-down event anyway.

Also, this could develop into a feud between the two campaigns' debate teams, possibly setting us up for crazy shifts in how the debates are laid out. McCain might even decide to flip Obama off and not show up for any of them, which would be incredibly weird but not necessarily out of character for him. It would backfire, of course, but if he spun it right he might coax a news cycle or two out of it, just as he did with Palin.

My actual prediction is that McCain will agree to do the debate, but will make hay out of Obama's unwillingness to work on the bailout bill; Obama, in turn, will bitchslap McCain about only doing this because of the way the polls look, and will make some more comments about how prezzes have to multitask. In the end the whole tizzy will be a wash on the merits, except that Obama will get plenty of chances to pivot on Friday from foreign policy to the economy. And if McCain doesn't get enough chances to try and scare dumb people about Iran, he'll have an even harder time winning this.