A day after the first of the three presidential debates, White House hopefuls - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain – stepped up their attacks, accusing each other of playing politics with the financial crisis. Following a high-pressure 90-minute encounter in Mississippi, which ended in a virtual tie, Obama hit the campaign trail while McCain returned to Washington to work on a rescue package for the financial sector.

McCain remarked that the debate illustrated his differences with Obama over Wall Street’s problems. He said: “It was clear that Senator Obama still sees the financial crisis in America as a national problem to be exploited first and solved later.”

McCain also lashed out at Obama for not talking about victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In his remarks to the sportsmen group, he said: “I noticed during our debate that even as American troops are fighting on two fronts, Barack Obama couldn’t bring himself to use the word ‘victory’ even once.”

In addition, McCain’s campaign released an ad criticizing Obama for a 2007 vote against funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The narrator says Obama was “playing politics, risking lives. Not ready to lead.”

Meanwhile, Obama, and his running mate Joe Biden, took turns criticizing McCain on the economy and his ties to unpopular President George W. Bush. They also made digs at McCain’s ‘political stunt’ of jumping off the campaign trail on Thursday to join bailout talks. Obama said: “You see, I think Senator McCain just doesn’t get it -- he doesn’t get that this crisis on Wall Street ... hit Main Street long ago. That’s why he’s been shifting positions these last two weeks, looking for a photo-op, and trying to figure out what to say and what to do.”

The Obama campaign also released a new advertisement called ‘zero’ – referring to the number of times McCain made reference to the middle class during the debate. The ad’s narrator says: “McCain doesn’t get it. Barack Obama does.”

Talking to reporters, Obama adviser, David Plouffe, said the Democrat “spoke really to people in their homes about needing a president who is going to fight for the middle class, who is going to work on things like education and health care.”