McCain seeks to reassure supporters

By Steve Holland

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday sought to reassure supporters in the face of some polls showing a widening lead for Democrat Barack Obama ahead of the November election.

At two fund-raising events in Las Vegas, McCain played down a poll that showed Obama with a double-digit lead and said most surveys show him down by only a few percentage points.

"I like that position," McCain said. "I like being the underdog."

He said he did not believe most Americans would begin focusing on the presidential campaign until the time of the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions in late August and early September.

"So a lot of this polling data is pretty much, sort of, you know, 'Who do you like?'" the Arizona senator said.

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll said Obama led McCain 49 percent to 37 percent among registered voters. Obama's lead, since capturing the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton, has generally been about half of that.

The McCain campaign took issue with the poll's methodology. McCain found a Gallup daily tracking poll more to his liking -- it had him and Obama tied at 45 percent.

Republicans face a difficult political environment this year with a souring U.S. economy and ongoing Iraq war punctuating the end of unpopular President George W. Bush's tenure.

McCain said given the economic conditions, he thought he was doing well, compared to the rest of the Republican Party.

"I'd like to give you a little straight talk. There was a poll last week that showed me three points down from Senator Obama and the Republican Party 19 points down from the Democrats," he said.

McCain and Obama are locked in a debate over how to deal with a mushrooming energy dilemma as Americans reel from record-high $4-a-gallon gasoline that has helped push the U.S. economy to the brink of recession.

McCain said if elected he would set a goal of weaning the United States from foreign oil by 2025, vowing to "break the power of OPEC" over Americans.

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Calling U.S. dependence on increasingly costly foreign oil a "dangerous situation" threatening the U.S. economy, McCain said: "Starting in the term of the next president, we must take control over our own energy future, and become once again the master of our fate."

McCain in speeches this week and last has outlined plans to provide incentives for development of electric cars, encourage construction of new nuclear power plants, permit offshore oil drilling and invest in clean-coal technology.