McCain suspends campaign to work on Wall Street plan

By Steve Holland

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican White House hopeful John McCain threw the campaign into turmoil on Wednesday by calling for a delay in the first presidential debate to try to forge a Wall Street rescue plan -- a surprise move promptly rejected by Democrat Barack Obama.

The political stunner came as some polls showed McCain falling behind Obama in their race for the November 4 election. Republicans and the White House welcomed McCain's move as a needed appeal for both parties to work together, while Democrats suspected a publicity stunt.

The Arizona senator announced he would suspend his campaign, pull television advertising, halt fund-raising and return to Washington on Thursday to try to help negotiations over a stalled $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street.

"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved," McCain said. He urged Illinois Sen. Obama to join him in returning to Washington to try to reach a consensus agreement by Monday.

The rescue is coming under heavy assault from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and Americans are skeptical about bailing out Wall Street with a plan that costs more than the United States has sunk into the Iraq war.

Obama, in Clearwater, Florida, to prepare for the first of three face-to-face debates leading up to the November 4 election, said he saw no reason the debate could not proceed on Friday in Oxford, Mississippi.

"What I'm planning to do now is debate on Friday," Obama said.

"It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess," he said. "I think that it is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

It was the latest shocker to emerge from the McCain camp, a list that includes his surprise choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate and his recent call for the firing of Christopher Cox as chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission over the financial crisis.

McCain and Obama spoke earlier in the day by phone about issuing a joint statement to try to prod along bailout talks, but McCain jumped ahead by announcing his move first.

OBAMA CAUGHT BY SURPRISE

The Obama campaign said it was caught completely by surprise. "Nobody had left the impression with him that something definitive had been decided by Sen. McCain" about the debate, said Obama adviser Robert Gibbs.

McCain warned he did not believe the Bush administration's proposed legislation on the bailout plan for the financial industry would pass the U.S. Congress in its current form and that he and Obama were needed in Washington to help reach a broad consensus.

Democrats called for the debate to proceed.

"We need leadership; not a campaign photo op," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told McCain in a phone call. McCain denied political motivations.