An overwhelming percentage of Americans do not want Friday's scheduled presidential debate to be delayed because of the Wall Street crisis, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted in the hours after the possibility was raised.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain (web|news|bio) on Wednesday called on Democratic rival Barack Obama (web|news|bio) to postpone Friday's debate to deal with the nation's financial problems.Obama rejected the offer, saying, "it's more important than ever" that the country hear from its next president.

» read the full story

SurveyUSA interviewed 1,000 adults nationwide Wednesday afternoon, finding that, in sum, 86 percent of Americans supported holding the debate as scheduled. Fifty percent wanted the debate to be held as planned. An additional 36 percent wanted the debate to focus on the economy. Just 10 percent of respondents said the debate should be postponed. Four percent were undecided.

» see the pie charts

» see the data breakdowns

The poll had a plus or minus 3.2 percent margin of error.

Surveyors did not relate the the candidates' positions on the matter to the respondents.

In a separate question, 79 percent of Americans say the presidential campaign should continue, including 48 percent who want the campaign to focus on economic issues. Just 14 percent said the presidential campaign should be suspended.

Nearly half of those surveyed, 46 percent, said it would be bad for America if Friday's debate does not take place.