Jackson Free Press

No one at an afternoon panel at Ole Miss' Overby Center was willing to stick up for John McCain's plan to ditch the debate. Former Gov. William Winter, Jackson City Council President Leslie McLemore and former Mississippi Republican Party chairman Clarke Reed were scheduled to discuss party realignment in the South, and they mostly stuck to that subject, except to express their disapproval of McCain's stunt.

Winter: "I couldn't believe it when I first heard it. And I still can't believe it. My immediate reaction is that he just doesn't want to face Barack Obama."

McLemore: "I just thought that it was ironic that a person who admitted that he didn't know anything about the ecnomy would now want to rush to Washington, D.C. to help Congress solve the economic dilemma that the country is in. I just think it's a stalling tactic."

Reed: "I'll not comment on the Senator's motives, but I think it's a mistake. The country needs to go on. These two gentlemen are fine senators, but they're not the centers of the show [in Washington]."