Sen. John McCain, who announced he was pulling out of Friday night's presidential debate to help forge legislation to save crippled U.S. financial markets, believes enough progress has been made for him to debate Democrat Sen. Barack Obama, his campaign said Friday.
John McCain says Congress has made enough progress on the bailout package for him to debate Friday.
1 of 2 But it added McCain plans to return to Washington after the debate. Obama issued a statement saying he plans to return, also.
McCain said Wednesday he was suspending his campaign events, along with his advertising, to return to Washington. He said he would take part in the debate if congressional action were taken to address the $700 billion bailout package.
By midday, no strong evidence indicated that members of Congress were making significant headway as proposals were weighed, said CNN's Dana Bash.
McCain has made some progress with the GOP leadership, but not with others in the House and Senate, she said.
Some fellow lawmakers said McCain hasn't contributed much to the financial debate, and senior campaign advisers told CNN they believed it was politically crucial that McCain show up at the debate in Oxford, Mississippi. Watch Sen. Reid say McCain got in the way »
Bash said a senior adviser to McCain agreed that McCain seemed to be hindering the negotiating process rather than helping it.
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"We understand that what we need to do is get McCain out of here, get him out of town, because the minute that McCain is somebody seen as brokering this, that's going to kill it," Bash quoted him as saying.
She said sources inside McCain's campaign understand he was "political dynamite."
Bash said there was "political posturing" in both the Obama and McCain camps ahead of the debate.
McCain's advisers have told CNN that McCain needs to turn the tide of the campaign, and must try to direct the debate toward his niche, foreign policy issues. Watch analysts call McCain's move a misstep »
As McCain left Washington, his campaign issued a statement expressing optimism.
"Sen. McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the administration, members of the Senate and members of the House," the statement said.
"He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative (Roy) Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans.
"The McCain campaign is resuming all activities," the statement said.
Obama had contended all along that the debate should go on, saying the financial crisis made it even more important for the public to hear the candidate's views. Watch Obama say there is 'real progress' on the bailout »
"At this point, my strong sense is that the best thing that I can do, rather than to inject presidential politics into some delicate negotiations, is to go down to Mississippi and explain to the American people what is going on and my vision for leading the country over the next four years," he said in a statement released Friday.
"So I am looking forward to the debate and look forward after the debate to coming back to Washington and hopefully getting a package done."
