McCain will pull a Truman upset...

[akuma587]

McCain is still pretty confident.

McCain brushes off polls, says 'we're doing fine'

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/26/campaign.wrap/index.html

Despite his sagging poll numbers, Sen. John McCain said Sunday that he is "very happy with where we are" and very proud of his campaign.
Sen. John McCain says his campaign is "very competitive" in key states.

"We're doing fine," the Arizona senator said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We are very competitive in many of the battleground states."

McCain brushed off polls that show him trailing Sen. Barack Obama, saying those numbers are "all over the map."

"Those polls have consistently shown me much further behind than we actually are. It all depends on the voter turnout ... we're doing fine. We have closed in the last week." he said. State-by-state polling

Obama leads McCain by 8 percentage points (50-42 percent), according to CNN's latest average of national polls.

McCain also spoke out against recent criticism of his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin.

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests that Americans have an increasingly negative view of the Alaska governor.

According to that poll, 46 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion of Palin, compared with 59 percent at the time of the Republican National Convention. The poll showed an increase in the number of people who have an unfavorable view of her -- 51 percent compared with 29 percent in early September.

The poll, conducted October 20-23, has a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

McCain said Palin "needs no defense."

"I don't defend her. I praise her," McCain said. "She has more executive experience than Sen. [Joe] Biden and Sen. Obama together."

McCain acknowledged that he and Palin disagree on some issues, but said it was "because we are both mavericks."

"But we share the same goal of cleaning up Washington. We will clean up and reform Washington together, and she has the credentials, and the vision, and the dynamism and the strength to do that," he said.

Sources have told CNN that long-brewing tensions between Palin and key McCain aides have been intensifying.

Several McCain advisers suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin "going rogue."

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to "bust free" of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

With just nine days left to campaign, the candidates and their running mates are focusing their attention on the battleground states as they try to turn out the vote and woo those who are still undecided.

McCain on Sunday was campaigning in Iowa, where Palin campaigned the day before. The latest polls show McCain trailing by double digits there.

Palin on Sunday had events scheduled in Florida and North Carolina. CNN's latest polls show a tight race in both states.

Obama on Sunday was in Colorado, a state that voted for President Bush in 2004. He has a 7-point lead there, according to CNN's average of Colorado polls.
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Biden was in his home state of Delaware on Sunday with no public events scheduled.

CNN's poll of national polls consists of seven surveys: Newsweek (October 22-23), ABC/Washington Post (October 21-24), Fox/Opinion Dynamics (October 20-21), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 22-24), Gallup (October 22-24), Diageo/Hotline (October 22-24), and IBD/TIPP (October 20-24). It does not have a sampling error.