You've named all Presidents. Obama and McCain (and Biden) are not President (or Vice-President). They are Senators seeking the highest offices in the land. And because they are Senators, they should be actively involved in the plan to save this economy. And if that means postponing a debate, or temporarily suspending a campaign, they should be willing to do so. Country first, not public office.
The Depression started in '29. FDR was Governor of New York, and not running for President in '29. He was sworn in as President in '33, and ran for re-election in '37. There was the Recession of '37, and FDR initiated a spending program in the spring of '38. By '40, the government had begun spending on the military, and drafting men into the service.
FDR was reelected in the fall of '40. By June 6, 1941, he was already in office and wouldn't have had to debate anyone. In FDR's case, the Great Depression had already started. In McCain's case, he's trying to fend off another Great Depression from taking place.
Abraham Lincoln. He held no elected office when he ran for President in 1860, and the first real land battle of the Civil War didn't occur until July of 1861. There wouldn't have been any need to postpone any debates or suspend a campaign during the summer of 1860. And I can't find any record of any debates taking place in the election of 1864.
One note of interest: The primary for NY City Mayor, was supposed to have taken place on September 11, 20001, but was postponed until September 25th.
You've named all Presidents. Obama and McCain (and Biden) are not President (or Vice-President). They are Senators seeking the highest offices in the land. And because they are Senators, they should be actively involved in the plan to save this economy. And if that means postponing a debate, or temporarily suspending a campaign, they should be willing to do so. Country first, not public office.
FDR, Lincoln, Truman, and Madison all held much greater responsibilities under much more trying circumstances than any Senator today, and they all found the time to run for office.
Hell, not only did Lincoln have to run against an active General in the US Army in the middle of the Civil War, but a group of Republicans broke off from the main party and were pushing John Fremont as the candidate for Republicans (think Ron Paul, only with more support).
If you are curious about Lincoln in '64, these are pretty good books - I've read the first two, and had the third recommended, just haven't picked it up:
Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency - focuses on Lincolon mainly
The Union Divided: Party Conflict in the Civil War North - good look at how much infighting was going on and how Lincoln had to deal with mid-term elections (remember, in 1862, there were plenty of people in the North still opposed to the war).
Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln's Opponents in the North - covers the opposition.
Most people do not realize just how skilled Lincoln was in party politics or that he was not that popular then. The maneuvering he did within the Republican party is very impressive, even when weighed against what we see in party politics today.
The War of 1812 was just as bad, if not worse - Madison won by less than 4% points, and his opposition was running on both a pro-war and anti-war platform, just like Obama's platform - it depended on where the Federalists campaigned as to whether the Federalists supported the war or opposed the war. Lincoln did face something similar with McClellan - McClellan ran pro-war messages while the Democrats pushed him to run anti-war messages (and would do so themselves behind his back).
In McCain's case, he's trying to fend off another Great Depression from taking place.
I don't know what they teach in public schools these days, but we aren't even close to that. No offense to you - you seem intelligent, but I run into younger folks all the time who throw the term "Great Depression" around without understanding just how bad it really was, and just how many things came together to cause it - here, in 2008, we have no equivalent to the tariffs of the Smoot-Hauley Tariff Act, we have no equivalent to the drought conditions and farming practices that turned some of our most productive farmland into dust (100 million+ acres), we don't have a huge portion of the population tied to agriculture (who became homeless because of the drought), we don't have the two largest countries in Europe devastated and still trying to recover from a war, we don't have an Asian empire starting to throw its weight around militarily and economically (although one could argue China is modern version of 1920s/1930s Japan).