The Note: You Break It . . .

Sept. 26, 2008— -- OXFORD, Miss. -- Sen. John McCain may or may not have broken the bailout bill -- and surely he didn't do so all by himself.

But he owns it now.

In the battle over perceptions, it really is this simple: There was a deal before McCain came back to Washington. There was not a deal by the time the evening ended. And now there might not be a bill -- or a first presidential debate Friday in Mississippi.

Holding that very heavy bag are McCain and his GOP colleagues in Congress. Steve Schmidt gets his wish: McCain is in the middle of the action -- amid friendly fire, political gamesmanship, competing loyalties, reelection fights, and a White House with no juice left.

(And, oddly, the whole distraction has an upside for Team McCain: We're not talking about Gov. Sarah Palin, whose slow media rollout is maybe not going slow enough.)

"Democrats immediately blamed McCain for disrupting the effort at compromise, saying his decision to suspend his campaign and return to Washington shifted the klieg lights of the White House contest to the tense and delicate congressional negotiations," Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman write in The Washington Post.

Oh yes, the debate.

We know that at least half of this strange non-team that saw the bailout bill go from done deal to just plain done Thursday at the White House will be making the trip to Ole Miss.

Sen. Barack Obama's A team is already in Oxford, Miss., for a debate that would be fraught with symbolism and historical significance even if its very existence wasn't still in doubt.

"Come hell or high water, we're going to Oxford," an Obama press aide said late Thursday, per ABC's Sunlen Miller.

ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "If McCain fails to show up, officials are mulling turning the first presidential debate into a town hall meeting where the Democratic presidential candidate takes questions from the audience and from the debate moderator PBS's Jim Lehrer."

We don't know whether McCain, having staked the near-term fate of his campaign to a bailout bill that members of his party absolutely loathe (and that even he seems unsure about whether he should embrace), will be making the trip. The McCain traveling press pool is assembling at 8:30 am ET, "just in case" they have to leave Washington quickly, per ABC's Bret Hovell.

This may all get worked out in plenty of time for McCain to get his moment. Maybe he will be cast as the deal's savior. Maybe this thing is such a bear that he shouldn't be seen as saving it -- not in its current form. Maybe the debate goes off as scheduled and this will all be a footnote.

The framework agreed to between the White House, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, and House Democrats remains in place -- and while it's too late to squeeze in a vote before Friday night, a deal could still come together, Stephanopoulos reported on "Good Morning America" Friday.

Regarding McCain's participation in Oxford: "It's way up in the air right now."

Is this what McCain bargained for?

The would-be savior "found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end," The New York Times' Adam Nagourney and Elisabeth Bumiller write. "As a matter of political appearances, the day's events succeeded most of all in raising questions about precisely why Mr. McCain had called for postponing the first debate and returned to Washington to focus on the bailout plan, and what his own views were about what should be done."

(And if there is a debate, it may not be the one McCain wanted: "I am not restrained from asking questions about the financial crisis," Jim Lehrer said in an e-mail message. "Stay tuned!")

"If there is a debate tonight, it will be about the economy. Not entirely, but enough to give Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain the opportunity to discuss the financial crisis, Washington's proposed solution and the unfinished business awaiting the next president," per The Washington Post's Dan Balz.

Who's to blame for the fact that we're talking about "ifs"? "At the White House, the gathering turned contentious when House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) brought up a new set of principles that conservative House Republicans had been laid out earlier in the day," Shear and Weisman report in the Post. "Boehner's move was received poorly by Obama and the other Democrats, who quickly pressed McCain to say whether he supported Boehner's position, according to a detailed account of the meeting. McCain declined to commit, one source said."

"Mr. Boehner pressed an alternative that involved a smaller role for the government, and Mr. McCain, whose support of the deal is critical if fellow Republicans are to sign on, declined to take a stand," per The New York Times' David M. Herszenhorn, Carl Hulse and Sheryl Gay Stolberg. "The talks broke up in angry recriminations, according to accounts provided by a participant and others who were briefed on the session, and were followed by dueling news conferences and interviews rife with partisan finger-pointing."

Classic scene: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, "literally bent down on one knee," pleading with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to allow the deal to collapse. Pelosi: "It's not me blowing this up, it's the Republicans." Mr. Paulson sighed: "I know. I know."

And what a quote: "If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down," said the 43rd President of the United States.

"By midnight, it was hard to tell who had suffered a worse evening, Bush or McCain. McCain, eager to shore up his image as a leader who rises above partisanship, was undercut by a fierce political squabble within his own party's ranks," the AP's Charles Babington writes.

"It's a curious way, so far, for McCain to be demonstrating his leadership ability," Lynn Sweet writes in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Do we really need a debate, when the drama back in Washington is such an interesting substitute?

"Lawmakers were caught between growing popular outrage over the notion of funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street tycoons and dire warnings of economic apocalypse if they do nothing," Helen Kennedy reports for the New York Daily News. "Unusual battle lines were being drawn: Most Senate Republicans and the White House joined most Democrats in backing a modified bailout, while House Republicans wanted to thwart it."

(Any questions as to why McCain has not pursued a career in congressional leadership?)

This is too easy for Democrats: "McCain only hurt this process," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"A lot of mavericks don't know a lot," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., per ABC's Matthew Jaffe.

"I think Senator McCain's involvement is sort of a blip. He hasn't been involved in this, and now if there is some discussion about putting this off and I don't think that we can do that," Pelosi, D-Calif., told ABC's Chris Cuomo on "Good Morning America" Friday. "I think the meeting was disruptive of the negotiations that were going on and the place that we were. . . . It will happen because it has to happen."