Welcome to a special convention edition of US Election Beat, Al Jazeera's daily analysis of what's happening in the US presidential elections as voters prepare to elect the 44th president of the United States. With news, views and a healthy degree of scepticism, we'll be bringing you the latest on the elections from across the US and the world as Americans prepare to cast their votes on November 4.

Someone needs to bailout the bailout, but who? It is not Bush, and it is not Henry Paulson, the US treasury secretary, and it is not McCain, and it is not Obama ... is it Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house? Or congressional Republicans? Or the Tooth Fairy? 

Joking aside, there is bad blood in Washington.

All day Thursday, the situation looked positive: Paulson and congressional Democrats had come to a deal on the "fundamentals" of the plan. 

But during the much-lauded White House meeting with the weirdest cast since the Muppets, House Republicans - who disiked the Paulson plan as being too "big government" - came out with their own plan, causing the whole thing to collapse.  

But where does McCain stand on any of this? He has not endorsed any plan. The Wall Street Journal reports that senate Republicans "weren't too happy with McCain," said one aide to the senator, adding that there was some "grousing" that the candidate wasn't fully embracing the emerging compromise.

The New York Times reports that McCain did not say much during the meeting, while Obama had many questions for Paulson. 

Debate debacle

Debate on foreign policy has been overtaken by the US finance crisis [AFP]

Lots of the papers tred to analyse McCain's motivations in coming to Washington. 

The NYT says: "The day's events succeeded most of all in raising questions about precisely why McCain had called for postponing the first debate and returned to Washington to focus on the bailout plan, and what his own views were about what should be done."

The WSJ reports that negotiations are set to begin again on Friday without house Republicans. 

Maybe Paulson will go to them on his knee, as he literally did to Nancy Pelosi yesterday after the White House meeting. No, he did not ask her to marry him, it was an attempt to salvage the deal. 

As for the debate, well McCain and Obama were supposed to spar on foreign policy, but right now, nobody's paying attention to the wars in x, y, and z or the future of peace negotiations in a, b, and c. It's all about the economy, stupid.

And all the work the poorly-paid researchers for America's big newspapers have been doing on presidential debates for months and months is for naught. 

The papers publish famous historic debate moments, polls, and pontifications, but the debate is the B story today. 

So here is my version of the B story: McCain needs to not lose his temper or look so uncomfortable. And Obama needs to not look like a lawyer or bored. 

Calling for candour

Who stands to lose more? A few days ago, it was Obama. He needed to light a fire under his campaign and command the stage. 

But now, the bar is significantly lower, and it's McCain who needs to show up and win. 

Otherwise, his campaign looks dangerously off track. John Dickerson writes: "For many voters, this will be their first extended viewing of Obama."

"His performance in the debate may go a long way toward helping them decide whether he's the kind of guy who can pull off all he's promised.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds spoke to one of America's legendary debate moderators, Bernard Shaw. 

Shaw, now retired, talked about what he hopes to see in a debate: "These candidates are over prepared for any question. The challenge is to ask a question that has not been asked a particular way before ... I'd like nothing better than for candour to break out, unadorned candour."

Al Jazeera English will bring you the First Presidential Debate live at 0100GMT, with analysis from all over the world.  And we’d like your feedback on the candidates’ positions and performance.  Please watch Al Jazeera English at 0100GMT and send your thoughts to YOURVIEWS@ALJAZEERA.NET 

John McCain has temporarily suspended his campaign - no advertisements, no fundraisers, no events and maybe no debate on Friday evening. 

He is coming back to Washington to help congress deal with the financial bailout. So is this a shrewd political move that voters will see as McCain putting America before politics, or more theatre than substance? All the papers are trying to figure it out ...

John Dickerson of Slate magazine thinks it is the latter: "This gambit feels like a wild improvisation someone in the McCain team mapped out on his chest ... the surest sign that a candidate is playing politics on an issue is when he claims not to be playing politics on an issue."

But Dickerson's assessment is not shared by all. A Republican strategist tells the Los Angeles Times: "If he pulls it off, he'll get credit both for improving the plan to the benefit of taxpayers, and for assuring its passage and saving the economy."

McCain told the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Thursday: "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time."

He has laid out his proposals, which do not look terribly different than the plan by George Bush, the current US president. 

We will most likely have a draft compromise by the end of Thursday, maybe before the afternoon meeting at the White House. 

Some things not likely to be in the bill: Relief for homeowners, a stimulus package, and a provision for bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of mortgages. This is strictly about stabilising Wall Street. 

Political 'one-upmanship'

So McCain says the debate should be cancelled unless a deal is in place. But that depends on what the definition of "in place" is.

Barack Obama did not let McCain own the narrative on Wednesday, he said the debate should go on because leaders have to multitask and Americans want to hear from the candidates side by side.  

He also made it clear that the joint statement was his idea. Children children ...

The Los Angeles Times calls what happened on Wednesday "a dizzying day of political one-upmanship".

Walter Shapiro writes in Salon magazine that "both campaigns are now locked in a bizarre game of chicken. If McCain actually boycotts the Oxford debate, Obama may score a public-relations coup while his Republican rival looks weak and evasive, or the Democratic nominee may appear too political while McCain puts on his mantle as statesman."

The Wall Street Journal reports that "Democratic leaders hope to nail down details of the measure early Thursday, ahead of an extraordinary summit meeting in the afternoon at the White House."

If true, and if acceptable to Republicans, everybody looks good – congress cares, the candidates are involved and the debate goes ahead.

The papers are calling it an "extraordinary" meeting this afternoon in Washington - Bush, congressional leaders, Obama, and McCain will meet to "help speed our discussions toward a bipartisan bill," according to Bush. 

And how does the American public feel about having to foot a potentially $700 billion bill?  According to Jim DeMint, a Republican senator for South Carolina, said his constituency is "100 to 1 against it".

And Thursday's not so funfact: Around 28 million DVDs of the film "Obsession - Radical Islam's War Against the West" are being distributed through direct mail and various newspapers in the swing states. 

The DVD was made by the Clarion Fund, and aims to frighten voters. The Tampa Tribune in Florida warns its readers: "You are being exposed to political propaganda on the eve of a presidential election. There's a reason "Obsession" is being targeted in pivotal swing states, and it's not for some altruistic educational value."

Polls are coming hard and fast these days. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll of likely voters finds Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, on the upswing nationally. 

He is up nine points across the country, perhaps showing that the race is breaking.

A national poll tests the country's mood - right now the economic situation is weighing heavily on voters and pushing them towards Obama and away from John McCain, his Republican rival. 

The Post says Obama "has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street."

But, as I always say, elections are not won nationally, they are won in the swing states. 

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times takes a look at money in the swing states. 

"The Obama campaign sent the Florida Democratic Party a $250,000 cheque on August 22, $200,000 to Colorado Democrats and lesser amounts to 22 other states -all but one a battleground - on the same day, according to FEC [Federal Election Commission] records."

That money goes to ads, paid staff, campaign offices, voter registration efforts and so on.

Bailout concerns

McCain's vote on any bailout plan will prove crucial [AFP]

Republicans on Capitol Hill are looking to him as the defacto leader of the party to decide how they should vote.

Most party loyalists are likely to go the way McCain goes. A top Republican aide told ABC News: "If McCain doesn't come out for this, it's over."

But if he decides not to support it, he goes against what George Bush, the current US president, wants. 

That may help his attempts to distance himself from the unpopular president, but Americans want to see their government is doing something to help them right now.

If McCain does not support the measure, it could leave Democrats as the majority party in congress looking as if they do not care about the economic situation. 

McCain said in a press availability on Tuesday: "Somehow for Democrats to say their vote is gauged on my vote frankly doesn't do them a great deal of credit."

The plan will cost about $2,300 per person, and two new polls out show different pictures of whether or not Americans support it (which is one reason why US Congress cannot figure it out either). 

The ABC/WP poll shows Americans split on the bailout. 

But a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that 55% of the poll's respondents said "they did not believe the government should be responsible for funding a bailout plan."

Pressing matters

In other news it seems McCain campaign does not like the press.

They have resisted efforts to allow Sarah Palin, McCain's vice-presidential running mate to be questioned by the press, criticised the New York Times for doing its job investigating lobbyist ties to the anti-lobbyist candidate and cry foul on the "liberal media" anytime Obama gets more column inches.

And Wednesday's gaffewatch: Biden again. The Columbus Dispatch takes a look at comments Biden made last week in Ohio where he claimed he and Obama do not support clean coal technology. And yet, they do.

The Republicans have a new website dedicated to Biden's constant gaffes. It is quite amusing.

Congress wants to vote on the proposed $700 billion financial bailout by the end of the week. 

Will McCain and Obama be able/willing to vote on the bill? 

Trouble on Wall Street remains high on the candidates agendas [EPA]

Neither has said how they would vote on the measure. 
 
The big question is, who do the candidates care about more, business or citizens? 

As the Wall Street Journal notes, the big question is how the candidates feel about the price of bad debt the treasury will buy, "A lower price would aid taxpayers but hurt companies; a higher price would do the opposite."

The Washington Post finds the candidates are unwilling to change their economic proposals, despite the changes in the US economy in the last 10 days.

If they cut their proposed spending, the deficit will go up and Voters don't like big deficits.  

But at least Obama is willing to concede that he can’t have his cake and eat it too. 

He told NBC this morning that if elected, he would probably delay some of his proposed spending programs because of the government bailout (can’t increase that deficit all at once).

Moral courage

The Los Angeles Times reports that during the 2008 election cycle, people involved in the financial sector donated $22.5 million to Obama and $19.6 million to McCain. 

Luckily we already know neither candidate will vote on the financial bailout bill, but the cash from the financial sector still leaves open the question of who is pulling the strings. 

As Hustler publisher Larry Flint once said, "Nothing changes a person's moral outlook faster than cash in large sums." 

I think that applies here.

Gaffewatch

Joe Biden got confused during an interview with CBS last night.

The anchor asked him about an Obama ad mocking John McCain's inability to use a computer.  Biden said, "I thought that was terrible.'  Then he tried to backtrack, too late. 

The economy continues to dominate the race for the White House, but John McCain is trying to move the campaign to issues more familiar with him, talking about the war in Iraq and Obama's experience. 

The Los Angeles Times reports, “McCain is expected to employ this tactic as part of his strategy when the candidates face off Friday to discuss foreign policy.” 

He's much more comfortable talking about foreign policy, but getting Americans to focus on anything but their wallets now is, well, not likely. 

 Ben Smith writes in Politico that "both men are struggling with their sheer irrelevance to the fast-moving wrangle between the White House, Congress, and the turbulent stock markets."

So Obama keeps his opinions of what Congress and the Bush administration are doing to himself. 

And McCain just keeps talking and talking and talking, leaving too many opportunities for Obama to attack him.

On the Sunday talk show "This Week," conservative commentator George Will summed up McCain’s recent rhetoric, “The question is, who in this crisis looked more presidential, calm and un-flustered? It wasn't John McCain who, as usual, substituting vehemence for coherence." 

Everybody is going nuts on the battleground states – who is giving the most money to which candidate, where the polls stand, and which groups are undecided. 

As the Miami Herald notes, "The 2008 presidential race will go down as the most polled and attitude-checked presidential election ever, further evidence that the White House race has become a spectator sport - replete with a daily box score." 

And NBC's polling shows that southwest Pennsylvania has the largest number of undecided voters around, so look for the candidates to practically move there. 

The Washington Post reports that Sarah Palin’s campaign staff is full of Bushies. 

"Far from being a group of outsiders to the Republican Party power structure, it is now run largely by skilled operatives who learned their crafts in successive Bush campaigns and various jobs across the Bush government over the past eight years."

Even if their presence can't help McCain say he's distancing himself from Bush, these guys are effective Republican political operatives.