Candidates Follow Up on Plan

Sen. John McCain, who was at a small-business roundtable in Des Moines, talked to President Bush and urged him to tap the Exchange Stabilization Fund. (By Charlie Neibergall -- Associated Press)

McCain also released another ad playing off of the collapse of housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and underscoring the call for greater regulation he made two years earlier. The ad includes a surprise guest: former president Bill Clinton, with footage of an interview in which Clinton said Democrats share responsibility for not enacting stiffer oversight in past Congresses.

"I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Clinton said in the Sept. 25 interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

At the same time, the Republican National Committee released an ad on McCain's behalf that seemed to suggest that McCain opposes passage of a rescue package. "Wall Street squanders our money, and Washington is forced to bail them out with -- you guessed it -- our money. Can it get any worse?" the ad says.

Asked to reconcile McCain's call for bipartisanship with the tough rhetoric coming from the RNC and the campaign, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds replied: "Just because we need a rescue plan doesn't mean we're going to allow Barack Obama to run around the country misrepresenting his previous proposals for punitive tax increases on businesses."

McCain and Obama will return to Washington this afternoon so that they can vote on the rescue bill, aides to both men's campaigns said last night. The Senate is expected to take up the bill as early as tonight.

Staff writer Perry Bacon Jr. contributed to this report.