US voters want "real answers" on the economic crisis and "don't care about the back and forth between the candidates", according to Barack Obama's wife.

Michelle Obama said there were "two conversations" going on ahead of November's presidential election.

"There's the conversation that's been happening with the pundits and then there's the conversation that's been happening on the ground," she said.

She said Americans were more concerned about the financial crisis that was engulfing the country.

"They don't care about the back and forth between the candidates," she said.

"They want real answers about how we're going to fix this economy and get the health care benefits on track so, you know, this is part of politics."

With less than four weeks to go until the election, Mr Obama leads in virtually all the battleground states and has more than a five point lead nationally in the latest average of polls.

Mr McCain's poll numbers plummeted as his campaign stumbled in its handling of the US economic crisis in recent weeks.

The race took an aggressively negative turn over the weekend when Mr McCain's running mate Sarah Palin claimed the Democrat was "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country".

The attack referred to Mr Obama's ties to William Ayers, a founding member of the Weather Underground, a 1960s radical group known for bombings of police stations, the Pentagon and the US Capitol.

Asked about the comments, Mrs Obama said her husband served on a Chicago education board with Ayers.

"I don't know anyone in Chicago who is heavily in education policy who doesn't know Bill Ayers," she said.

"But, you know, again I go back to the point that, you know, the American people aren't asking these questions."

© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.