NASHVILLE -- Reaching out to an anxious nation, John McCain and Barack Obama vied in a spirited debate Tuesday over who would be the better steward of an economy in crisis.

''Americans are angry, they're upset, and they're a little fearful,'' McCain said at the outset of a pressure-packed debate. ``It's our job to fix the problem. Now, I have a plan to fix this problem.''

McCain said he would order the Treasury Department to buy up bad mortgages to shore up home values.

''It's my proposal,'' he said. ``It's not Sen. Obama's proposal, it's not President Bush's proposal.''

Obama called for tax cuts for the middle class, help for homeowners to stay in their homes and help for local governments to build bridges and other infrastructure improvements to create jobs. Longer term, he said, he would expand healthcare and improve energy independence.

''You need somebody working for you and you've got to have somebody in Washington who is thinking about the middle class and not just those who can afford to hire lobbyists,'' Obama told voters huddled in a town hall meeting and millions more watching at home.

McCain's pledge to have the government help individual homeowners avoid foreclosure went beyond the details of the bailout that recently cleared Congress. The legislation allows but does not require Treasury to purchase mortgages directly. Obama has said previously that idea should be studied, and his campaign contended McCain's proposal was not a new one.

With stock markets plummeting, the economy dominated questions posed by voters both inside the town hall-style session and over the Internet.

Participants in the 90-minute meeting were 80 undecided voters from the Nashville area selected by the Gallup polling organization. Held at Belmont University, the debate was moderated by Tom Brokaw of NBC.

Right from the start, the two men worked to show that they understand voters' worries, to stress that they know how to fix problems on Wall Street and in the federal budget, and to blame the other for contributing to the economic problems or proposing changes that would make problems worse.

In addition to purchasing bad mortgages, McCain said he'd shore up the economy by keeping taxes low and pushing energy independence to stop sending $700 billion in American dollars overseas.

A FIRST STEP?

Obama called the financial bailout approved by Congress -- with support from both major party candidates -- a first step.

Yet he all but acknowledged some of the fears many Americans have about bailing out Wall Street, noting reports of a $400,000 junket taken by executives of the failed insurance giant AIG just a week after the company was rescued by the government.

''The Treasury should demand that money back and those executives should be fired,'' Obama said.

McCain said he'd tried to rein in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago -- saying their home lending policies were ''the match that started this forest fire'' -- but that Obama and other Democrats had blocked them. He said Obama got heavy campaign contributions from the two mortgage-lending giants.

Obama said he ''never promoted'' Fannie and Freddie, then changed the subject by noting that voters don't like the blame game. ''You're not interested in hearing politicians point fingers,'' Obama said.

But he too went on the attack early, blaming McCain and the Republican Party for the crisis, calling it ``a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years.''

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