Perhaps you ask, "what's the contigency plan(s) if McStunt is a no show in Ofxord tonight?"
I think The Daily Conservative has an interesting idea:
John McCain has decided to "suspend his campaign" so that he can go back to Washington to help fix the economic crises. For the first time I actually agree with Obama that they should be able to handle more than one thing at a time. McCain has decided to blow off Friday’s debate at this time because he feels it’s not the right time. I have to say that it’s complete garbage and nothing but a political stunt. McCain needs to get back to his campaigning. Washington doesn’t need his help in spending our money.
But wait, there is more!
If McCain wants to play around in Washington I think a substitute for tomorrow night’s debate should be made. I’m sure Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin or [Ralph Nader] would enjoy a little publicity for a change. While McCain is playing politics with anything that comes his way the third party candidate are, not surprisingly, being ignored. The chances of this happening is absolutely zero but I thought I’d complain about it anyway. The drive-by media would rather sit and talk about McCain and Obama over and over again. Every time I turn on the TV they switch from the bailout, to McCain suspending his campaign, to Obama not suspending his campaign, to having the debate and back to the bailout again. Come on people, where’s the substance
Now let's here from Nader himself:
P.S.The law requires that there must be two candidates for a debate...
In terms of Friday's debate, if McCain decides not to attend, Obama can still appear and answer questions from Lehrer. There will be no injunction issued. Rather, under 47 U.S.C. §315, the networks will be obligated to provide McCain equal time at a later point. Presumably, this would take the form of McCain answering questions in a similar format in the future (think Saddleback with a longer delay).
A more interesting (and less likely) alternative is for Obama to invite a third party candidate to the debate. For instance, if Libertarian candidate Bob Barr were to take McCain’s place, the Obama campaign could argue that the debate qualified as a "bona fide news event" under the standards set by In re WANV, since multiple candidates were participating. In that case, McCain could be left on in the cold on future equal time claims