In what could be groundwork for the possibility that they have to skip tomorrow's debate, both John McCain and his top aide used similar rhetoric tonight to downplay the importance of the first presidential forum.



If Barack Obama had agreed to McCain's summer proposal to do joint town halls, the candidate and Steve Schmidt said, this would only be one more of many sessions featuring the two major party nominees.



"I understand that there is a lot of attention on this but I also wish Senator Obama had agreed to ten or more town hall meetings that I had asked him to attend with me," McCain told ABC's Charlie Gibson when asked in an interview broadcast on World News Tonight whether there would be a debate Friday in Mississippi as planned. "Wouldn't be quite that much urgency if he agreed to do that, instead he refused to do it."



Talking to the campaign pool reporter later, Schmidt said McCain hoped to make it to Oxford before shifting the conversation.



"He had actually hoped this would be the 11th debate of the campaign, not the first," Schmidt said. "He's very disappointed in Sen. Obama about that because this could have been the 11th debate. Sen. Obama said he would debate anywhere, anyplace, anytime. He refused to do that."



McCain's campaign recognizes the danger in skipping a long-agreed-to debate when the host, debate commission and their opponent is going forward as planned. The rhetoric tonight from McCain and Schmidt reflects a search for some measure of political cover, something that can muddy the waters.



Schmidt said McCain would be on the phone tonight, cajoling colleagues and trying to get closer to a deal.



"He's working very, very hard to try to get majority votes," Schmidt stated.



And now there is no longer just a policy imperative but increasingly a political one.



McCain needs at least consensus on the framework of an agreement to declare victory and jet south. To attend the debate without a deal in place just days after saying he would not do so could well undermine his entire gambit.



But missing the face off is hardly a preferred option, especially if McCain is not seen as aiding progress towards a deal. McCain's camp had hoped to put the onus on Obama by effectively forcing him to return to Washington for a high-level White House meeting. But if the GOP nominee, who has used his ability to get stuff done as a signature talking point, can't deliver after returning to the capital to do just that, his ploy could boomerang.



The good news for McCain is that he isn't the only one who wants to quickly get a deal done.



My Hill colleagues report that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke are both heading back up to Capital tonight to try to end the impasse.

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