When you run an attack ad against your opponent for refusing to compete in a debate, you can’t very well bow out of one yourself. So today, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign said that she would participate in a debate sponsored by MSNBC in Cleveland, Ohio.

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said on a conference call with reporters that the campaign had expressed its concerns to the network. Those concerns centered on a comment by an anchor, David Schuster, who said that the campaign had “pimped out” Chelsea Clinton to make calls to superdelegates on her mother’s behalf. Despite Mr. Shuster’s on-air apology and temporary suspension, the campaign threatened to boycott the network’s debates, citing “the pattern of behavior on your network that seems to repeatedly lead to this sort of degrading language.”

The campaign backed down today.

“But we do not believe those concerns should stand in the way of allowing the people of Ohio to see an important debate,” Mr. Wolfson said.

This clears the way for the debate with Senator Barack Obama to take place on Feb. 26 at Cleveland State University in advance of Ohio’s March 4 primary, seen as pivotal to Mrs. Clinton’s survival.

Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reporting.