Across the Pond: electoral college maps and state polls

John McCain yesterday seized back the initiative in the race for the White House by asking Barack Obama to postpone tomorrow's televised debate, suspend campaigning and join him for crisis talks with President Bush on the economy.

But Mr Obama insisted that the debate in Mississippi should go ahead, adding: "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."

The Democratic nominee said he was willing to fly back to Washington at any time from Florida - where he had planned to spend three days preparing for the debate - but added that to "suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics" would not help resolve the problem.

Mr McCain made his dramatic announcement as he appeared to lose footing in the face of the financial storms ripping through America, which threaten to blow away his presidential ambitions.

Opinion polls suggest that the upheavals on Wall Street have allowed Mr Obama to open up a clear lead of up to nine points and overturn Mr McCain's long-standing advantage on which candidate is best able to handle an unexpected crisis.

Just hours before President Bush was due to deliver a televised address to the nation on his bitterly-contested $700 billion bail-out of a stricken financial system, Mr McCain laid out in the starkest terms some of the consequences of failing to reach agreement.

"Credit will dry up," said Mr McCain, "people will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, every corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.

"It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration’s proposal. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands - and we are running out of time."

He promised to suspend his campaign, cancelling all advertisements and events, after a speech in New York today so that he can return to Washington.

"I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

While acknowledging "the clock is ticking, we have to act swiftly," Mr Obama was scornful of the notion that all campaigning should cease. "Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time. It’s not necessary for us to think that we can only do one thing and suspend everything else.”

He also hinted at some resentment that Mr McCain had beaten him to the announcement, several times underlining that he had reached out first to seek a bi-partisan solution by telephoning his rival at 8.30am to suggest they issue a joint statement on shared principles.

It was only after a six-hour delay that the Republican had called back, he said, agreeing to the joint statement and raising a possibility that the debate should be postponed. When he got back to his hotel, Mr Obama said he was surprised to learn that Mr McCain had already been on TV to announce his intentions. There must have been "some miscommunication," said the Democrat.

The independent debate commission insisted that tomorrow's first televised clash between the two candidates was still on, while one of Mr Obama's aides added: "The only thing that has changed is John McCain's standing in the polls."

Although the White House disputed Mr McCain's claim that no progress had been made on securing agreement with Congress before it is scheduled to go into recess tomorrow, officials have been taken aback by the scale of opposition from conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Voters appear divided on the issue. An ABC/Washington Post poll showed 44 per cent supported the bail-out and 42 per cent opposed it. But a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times survey suggested that, by a margin of 55 per cent to 31 per cent, they believe it is not the government's responsibility to rescue private companies with taxpayer dollars.

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