Just kidding, apparently

The New York Times has an article by Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny about McCain's sudden return to the debate:

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.
Mr. McCain had thrown debate preparation into turmoil on Wednesday afternoon after he announced that he intended to skip the debate in order 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 be reached soon, citing “significant progress” in the talks.
The statement was sharply critical of Mr. Obama, who, like Mr. McCain, returned to Washington on Thursday to take part in the bailout talks. The statement portrayed Mr. Obama as unduly partisan and insufficiently concerned with protecting taxpayer interests in the bailout negotiations, while Mr. McCain was framed as the leader of House and Senate Republicans seeking to reach a compromise agreement.
“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,” said the McCain campaign statement.
Moments after Mr. McCain 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, according to a pool report. Both planes were set to arrive here in Memphis on Friday afternoon.

Rico says he hopes the Secret Service knows to keep these planes well apart...