McCain has just announced that he will be attending tonight’s presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi hosted by Jim Lehrer.
Seconds before cable outlets announced the news, I got off the phone with Anne Bell, a spokesperson for McNeil/Lehrer Productions, the business arm of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, who confirmed to me that, no matter what McCain decided, the debate–or something like it–would have proceeded under the auspices of the Commission on Presidential Debates.
“No matter what, there will be a program,” she said.
“The Commission asked Jim Lehrer to host a debate, and the Commission is going ahead with the debate. Jim Lehrer will fulfill that obligation,” she added. “There will be a 90 minute program. What shape it will be, we don’t know.”
With McCain back on board, that question seems to be answered. The University of Mississippi’s chancellor had proposed an Obama only town hall had McCain not attended.
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.