After debate, candidates back on campaign trail
WASHINGTON -- Republican John McCain made plans Sunday to return to the campaign trail this week, while Democrat Barack Obama stressed proposals to "help families on Main Street" during a rally in Detroit.
Both presidential candidates tentatively endorsed the Wall Street bailout during television appearances Sunday and gave each other bad reviews from Friday night's first debate.
In offering support for the deal, Obama and McCain cited changes to the initial $700 billion bailout plan, including new provisions to create an independent oversight board and restrict CEO pay. Both said action is needed to protect the financial system, despite failures in Washington and on Wall Street.
"It is an outrage, an outrage, that we are now being forced to clean up their mess," Obama said in Detroit. He appeared earlier in the day on CBS's Face the Nation.
McCain, appearing on ABC's This Week, said the outline of the bailout looks like "something that all of us will swallow hard and go forward with."
McCain, who had suspended his campaign on Wednesday because of the financial crisis and threatened not appear at the debate, plans to hold a rally today in Columbus. He also has events scheduled this week in Iowa and California.
The Arizona senator said he left the campaign trail to participate in congressional bailout talks. Top Democratic negotiators, such as Mass. Rep. Barney Frank, called McCain's involvement political and counter-productive.
On ABC, McCain said he helped address the concerns of critical House Republicans, making the current plan a bipartisan one. "I won't claim a bit of credit, OK, if that makes them feel better," McCain said of the critics.
After a day of phone calls on Saturday, McCain spoke by satellite to the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance in Columbus, and knocked Obama's debate performance. "It was clear that Sen. Obama still sees the financial crisis in America as a national problem to be exploited first and solved later," he said.
At a Democratic rally in Detroit, Obama said McCain echoed President Bush throughout the debate on issues ranging from taxes to health care to Iraq.
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