When they spend so much time on the road campaigning, it can be easy to forget that both presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates currently have jobs. John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are senators and Sarah Palin is a governor.

McCain, Obama and Biden made a detour from the campaign trail to participate in Senate business October 1. All three voted for a measure commonly referred to as the bailout bill that would make a lot of federal money available to shore up the U.S. financial system. The bill was one of four passed by the Senate on Wednesday.

The candidates have missed votes during their time campaigning, but with the economy as Americans’ top concern, the candidates said they felt it was important to be present for this vote.

The turbulence in financial markets – called the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s – already has brought down several major banks and other financial companies. It was caused in large part by the fairly recent practice of issuing homebuyers larger loans than they could afford.

The bailout bill still needs to pass the House of Representatives before it can be signed by the president. The House rejected a bill on this issue earlier this week.