There isn't one editorial piece that you can find that isn't coming down on McCain, right or left. This is from Republican strategist Chris Coffey from FOX News;

"McCain delivered an implicit ultimatum to Obama: suspend your campaign, cancel the debate, and high tail it to D.C. — or tempt the perception of being one who puts politics before country.

Ultimatums are delivered to defenseless foes, not to vital opponents. They are a form of intimidation intended to trigger subservience. That is why McCain now risks looking like a duplicitous bully with little interest in bipartisan cooperation, even though he has spent a lifetime cultivating the opposite image.

Whatever the case, the McCain campaign has put itself in the unique position of being unable to campaign before an election. Suspension means suspension. If one staffer shows up for work, this whole gamble turns into a media stunt.

I hope I am wrong and that this wager pays."

This debate costs $5.5 million to the state of Mississippi, with a Republican Governator who came out yesterday and can't wait to see the debate. The idea from the debate commission if McCain doesn't show us will be a townhall style affair where Obama would take questions from people through the moderator.

John McCain doesn't get to control what the rest of the country does all by himself without consulting people and just making demands. If he doesn't show tonight, it'll be because he's really, really lost it.

Personally I feel bad for him now, since he's going to have to face the music on 8 of the most terribly governed years in American history, which wasn't all his fault.

But even on foreign matters, McCain is going to lose points on Iraq, which he still doesn't have a plan for.