CNN

Angela Russell and Ruth Schiele-Moore

ABOARD THE ELECTION EXPRESS

BATESVILLE, Mississippi (CNN)– As word of John McCain’s proposal to postpone Friday’s debate reaches Mississippi, there is an initial sense of confusion and disappointment among the people here who have been planning this weekend for months.

“I feel like sending a text message to Barack Obama,” said Ruth Schiele-Moore, the manager of a 50-unit hotel in Batesville, half an hour from Oxford, where the debate will be held.

Her hotel is booked solid for the weekend, as are most hotels and motels in the area. She said she would like to send Obama a text message that reads:

“Come on down here. You just may win Mississippi.”

She said she wants Obama to show up at the debate even if McCain does not appear.

“I don’t understand why McCain feels he can talk to the American people about the economy better from somewhere else than he can from here,” she said. “He should come down here and stand next to Obama, and both of them should tell the public their views about how they would fix the economy.”

She said she is aware that Friday’s debate is supposed to be about foreign policy.

“They can change it,“ she said. “The people want to hear about the economy. Come to Mississippi this weekend and talk to us about it.”