The consensus is that McCain didn't have a choice but to go to the debate in Mississippi tonight, lest he hand Obama the election by giving him a free 90-minute campaign commercial watched by 30-40 million people. I generally agree.

I also think that McCain could have handled today's decision better: instead of simply releasing a statement as he headed out of town this morning, he should have waited until much later in the day and held a presser with Joe Lieberman and members of the Republican caucus of the House and Senate to declare that they'd be working the problem diligently throughout the day and made "significant" progress that allowed him to attend the debate.

Anyway, here is a sampling of some of the emails that came in on McCain's decision:

Of course it is a good idea. As an Obama fan, I thought it made McCain look weak and unprepared if he did not go.

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While I respect and agree with his decision to put the campaign on the back burner to help with the solution to the economic meltdown, I also think this whole thing looks like an elaborate game of chess, and McCain would have forfeited the game if he refused to debate tonight.

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It is a terrible decision to go to the debate (after saying he wouldn't). How can he possibly explain this decision in light of his announcement earlier this week? "I went to Washington to fix everything but then realized it was really hard so I left?" "Oops. I was wrong and the debate is more important after all." I don't get it.

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It was a good decision to attend. What else could he do? Giving Obama 90 minutes of prime time against an empty podium would have been a disaster.

It was bad to ever have suggested the debate delay in the first place. He could done just as well to "suspend" to return to Washington without yanking the debate. When there was buzz of also postponing the VP debate, suspicious were really aroused as to true motives for this.

One thing McCain could have done to not grant Obama 90 minutes of free time would have been to send Palin in his place.

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I am a Republican activist, a Precinct Chair. I reacted negatively to McCain wanting to postpone the debate. I think he was trying to act like he is the statesman in the race but we all knew the MSM was going to put a comlpletely different spin on it.

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It is a good move only in the sense that not attending would be worse. McCain, slipping in the polls, went all in and Obama called his bluff.

McCain's strategy was to put Obama in a box: if Obama agreed to postpone, he would be following McCain's lead. If he didn't, he would appear partisan and uncaring. But, in fact, McCain put himself in a box, especially when the tentative deal fell through: either capitulate to Obama and debate, or allow Obama a one hour, free, infomercial to himself. Bad move.

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Bad idea. He should stay on the Hill and help the republicans iron out a good deal. Better politically.

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I don't think McCain had any choice but to attend the debate. He milked it for all it was worth, but to skip it—even though his protest that Obama nixed the town hall debates was a decent retort—would've looked churlish to voters, let alone the media, which would've skewered him.

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McCain has to go to the debates, he has no choice. He will look like a complete fool being a no-show. This is typical McCain – react and shoot the mouth off first – then stop, think about what you have said then back pedal.

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His move to “suspend” the campaign was a political ploy. To go to the debate after claiming to put country first and work out the bailout deal is so transparent. I think he and Bush were playing a game of chicken with Obama – and Obama didn't blink!

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McCain's initial decision not to go to the debate and return to Washington was brilliant. That is, brilliant until he walked in the door of the cabinet room yesterday. Right up to that point, I (Obama supporter) was salivating jealously at the brilliance of the move.

But what conceivable explanation is there for what happened next? He walked in, essentially said nothing, stood there while the members of his party essentially ignored him, showed no leadership, showed no grasp of the issue, was painfully embarrassed by his party's house leadership, and – most bafflingly – took this gift of an incredibly visible high stakes showdown, and squandered it.

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Every move he has made in the last three days is bad. If I were a Senate GOP member I would be MORE than upset with him. It has come across as a political stunt…and sometimes that works, but most of the time, it does not.

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