WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican John McCain says he's going to be
at the first presidential debate, even though Congress doesn't have
a bailout deal.

With less than 10 hours until the debate was scheduled to start,
the McCain campaign announced that the Arizona senator would travel
to the University of Mississippi. The campaign said after the forum
he will fly back to Washington to continue working on the financial
crisis.

The campaign's statement said McCain is optimistic that there
has been progress toward a bipartisan agreement. But earlier in the
week, McCain said he would delay the debate "until we have taken
action to address this crisis."