WASHINGTON - Barack Obama slated John McCain Saturday for slighting the middle classes in the first presidential debate, as his Republican rival burnt up phone lines in search of a Wall Street rescue deal.
Democrat Obama went right after Republican nominee McCain at a rally in North Carolina, saying he had come across in Friday's feisty clash as out of touch on the economic and national security perils facing America.
McCain meanwhile holed up in his campaign office and apartment outside Washington and made a flurry of calls designed to help seal a 700 billion dollar finance industry bailout before markets open on Monday.
"Last night we had a debate. And on issue after issue -- from taxes to health care to the war in Iraq -- you heard John McCain make the case for more of the same policies that got us into this mess," Obama said.
"But just as important as what we heard from John McCain was what we didn't hear," Obama said at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
"The truth is, through 90 minutes of debating, John McCain had a lot to say about me, but he had nothing to say about you. He didn't even say the words 'middle class' -- not once."
The Arizona senator's spokesman Tucker Bounds responded that Obama had a "selective memory."
"If he was honest, Barack Obama knows he was unable to debate the merits of supporting higher taxes on the middle class, and bloated government spending during a looming economic crisis -- it simply proved indefensible last night," Bounds said.
McCain flew directly back to Washington after the debate at the University of Mississippi to throw himself back into the search for a deal in Congress on a 700 billion Wall Street bailout before the financial markets open on Monday.
He spoke to President George W. Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke, as well as top Republican members of Congress, his campaign chief said.
McCain had faced intense fire from Democrats who blamed the collapse of an apparent deal on the bailout last week on McCain's decision to rush back to Washington in what they branded a publicity stunt.
"He can effectively do what he needs to do by phone," said McCain's senior advisor Mark Salter.
"He is calling members of both sides, people in the administration ... helping out as he can," Salter said.
But the Obama campaign immediately sent out a statement questioning McCain's strategy.
"If this is the case, why did Senator McCain suspend his campaign," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.
The Obama campaign also pointed out that McCain stayed cloistered in Washington, with his campaign on hold, while the Illinois senator spoke to 20,000 people in North Carolina.
Reporters covering McCain got brief glimpses of him as he walked from office to his motorcade, carrying papers and with a mobile phone to his ear.
Commentators meanwhile coalesced behind the view that neither McCain 72, nor Obama, 47, landed a decisive blow in the debate at the University of Mississippi or committed a major gaffe, a verdict that benefits Obama given his slim lead in the polls.
Obama released a new political advertisement hammering McCain as out of touch with the economic woes of everyday Americans.
"Number of minutes in debate? 90. Number of times John McCain mentioned the middle class? Zero. John McCain doesn't get it. Barack Obama does," the ad's narrator said.
McCain debuted his own ad, which accused Obama of deserting US troops in battle, saying he had voted against war funding bills.
The Illinois senator justified the votes, which were never in practice likely to result in money being stripped from the troops, by saying the bills did not include troop withdrawal deadlines.
An instant telephone poll by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. after the debate scored a decisive win for Obama among 524 debate watchers. Asked who did the better job, 51 percent said Obama and 38 percent said McCain.
The Democrat had a yawning lead of 58-37 percent on handling the economy, and a narrower edge of 52-47 percent on the Iraq war, the pollsters said.