Eh. If he shows up and does well, no one will care. In fact, per Nate Silver, now that the stakes have been raised, if he connects it could end up being a home run.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Sen. John McCain made a “huge mistake” by even discussing canceling the presidential debate with Sen. Barack Obama…

Huckabee defeated McCain in the Alabama GOP primary in February. Huckabee said Thursday in Mobile that the people need to hear both candidates. He said that’s “far better than heading to Washington” to huddle with senators.

He said the candidates should level with the people about the financial crisis and say the “heart of this is greed.”

MSNBC was running a graphic 20 minutes ago claiming McCain’s told Brian Williams he’s hopeful about being there, but I can’t find a link yet. As of this moment, the word from Maverick HQ is that “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.” In which case, bad news: Judging by the reports of Barney Frank’s tantrum, it sounds like there’s no deal. Exit quotation: “The South is supposed to be important to McCain. This doesn’t seem like it.”

Update: Politico says he also told Charlie Gibson he’s “hopeful” about attending but isn’t committing to anything yet. The pressure on the House GOP to agree to a deal in principle must be enormous because of this; if they hold out, he’s going to be stuck tomorrow afternoon choosing between having to keep his promise and skip the debate or break it and go.

Update: Survey USA re-polled the debate question it asked yesterday. There’s been a bit of movement towards postponement, but 74 percent still want the show to go on.