John McCain is a man who believes in principle and duty. His convention slogan was "Country First."

McCain believes it is his duty is to go to Washington and help craft a bipartisan solution to the crisis on Wall Street. McCain took the extraordinary step yesterday of announcing that he was suspending his campaign — including fund raising and advertising — to return to the nation's capital. He said he was working with the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, to postpone the debate scheduled for tomorrow night at the University of Mississippi.

As of this writing yesterday evening, the Obama campaign had not agreed and was saying the debate is still on.

McCain's heart is in the right place and his intentions are honorable. Conducting politics as usual in a time of crisis seems improper.

But the country would be better served by a presidential debate on the economic meltdown and the bailout plan now before Congress. This is, as some in Washington have stated, a once-in-a-century crisis. How we react to it will set the direction of the economy for decades to come.

McCain is worried that the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout proposal is going nowhere in Congress. He's probably right. Democrats don't like the bill because it throws buckets of money at troubled corporations while doing next to nothing for struggling homeowners. Republicans don't like it because it is a massive government intervention in the free market.

McCain wants President Bush to call a meeting of leaders of Congress, including himself and Obama, to work on a compromise solution to the mortgage crisis.

"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved," McCain said in a statement yesterday.

There are just 40 days remaining until the election. On Nov. 4, the American people will choose the person who will lead us for the next four years.

On Jan. 20, either John McCain or Barack Obama will take office as president of the United States. One of them will inherit the responsibility — among countless others — of resolving the credit crisis and getting the economy back on track.

There are real differences in the philosophies underpinning the McCain and Obama campaigns. In tinkering with the economy, it is very much easier to make matters worse than better. What does each candidate propose to do? Tell us - that's each candidate's job now.

The idea of limiting the topic of tomorrow's debate to foreign policy, as planned months ago, is ludicrous. The economy is the pressing issue now, and debate organizers should be flexible enough to accommodate this new reality. But the debate should go on.

Finding a compromise on the Wall Street bailout is the job of congressmen, senators and the Bush administration. They'll do that job, or fail, with or without McCain and Obama's two votes.

Right now, it's up to Obama and McCain to explain to the public how they'll prevent something like this from happening again.