McCain gears for 'fight'; Obama calls on early voters

Reporting from Denver and Cedar Falls, Iowa — John McCain used the word "fight" 15 times in the rousing campaign speech he delivered today in Cedar Falls, Iowa, urging supporters who filled a local gym to join his battle for the White House.

And when the Republican presidential nominee appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," he dismissed most polls and insisted that he would pull an upset victory over Democratic nominee Barack Obama. McCain insisted that the race had tightened in the last week and that he remained in striking distance.

"Obviously, I choose to trust my senses as well as the polls," he said. "I've been in a lot of presidential campaigns. I see the intensity out there. I see the passion. We're very competitive out there."

He added, "We're going to be up very, very late on election night."

Obama, who drew a large crowd today while campaigning in Colorado, kept up his appeal that voters take advantage of early voting and hit familiar points on McCain's record of voting with the Bush administration and on the advantages he says his tax policies offer middle-class Americans.

McCain found few visible signs of encouragement in Iowa after a brutal week of sagging polls across the nation and small crowds in nearly every battleground state. In Waterloo, where McCain spent Saturday night, the Courier newspaper reported that Obama had widened his lead over McCain in Iowa to 15 points in the latest poll. And the state's largest circulation newspaper, the Des Moines Register, endorsed the Illinois senator.

All this came a day after McCain attracted fewer than 1,000 people to an outdoor rally in Albuquerque. That night, Obama attracted upward of 35,000 to an indoor arena in the same city.

McCain's aides say the Arizona senator remains upbeat and intently focused despite such setbacks. They say he campaigns best as the underdog and will fight until the last vote is cast.

But the campaign has taken what sometimes seems a plaintive tone. When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced McCain to 2,600 people at the University of Northern Iowa, he pleaded for support.

"We need you, we need you," Graham said with emotion. "John McCain needs your help. He deserves your help."

When McCain took the stage, he conceded that he was "a few points down." In a rare admission, he even mentioned a possible defeat on Nov. 4.

"I fought for you most of my life where defeat meant more than returning to the Senate," he said.