The issue of the country’s financial turmoil appears to be benefiting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a fairly steady manner, with November 4 election just round the corner.

Though Obama’s 11-point lead over his rival Republican John McCain, according to Sunday’s Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll, is his lowest of the month over the economy issue, it nevertheless is a gap that McCain has to think about.

London, Oct 27: Republican presidential nominee John McCain has declared defiantly that he would emerge victorious from next weeks presidential election even as campaign tensions including with his running-mate Sarah Palin descended into a semi-public brawl over who to blame for defeat.

“I guarantee you that two weeks from now, you will see this has been a very close race and I believe that I am going to win it,” said the Republican nominee.

“I see intensity out there, and I see passion. So were very competitive,” The Times quoted McCain, as saying.

Washington, Oct 27: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has opened up an eight-point lead over his rival John McCain in Virginia, and the Illinois Senator is entering the final week of the campaign with several core advantages when it comes to turning out his supporters.

According to a new Washington Post poll, Virginia voters think that Obama is the candidate who would do more to bring needed change to Washington, who understands the economic challenges people are facing and who is the more honest and trustworthy of the two rivals.

Washington, Oct 27 : Republican presidential nominee John McCain has acknowledged that the race to get to the magic number of 270 electoral votes is tough, but said polls are “all over the map” and he is doing better than the numbers would suggest.

“We’re doing fine, we have closed in the last week, we’ll continue to close in the next week and you’ll be up very, very late on election night,” McCain told "Meet the Press" anchor Tom Brokaw in an interview taped in Iowa.

Washington, October 27 : U. S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said that one-third of the clothing and accessories worth 150,000 dollars, purchased by the party on for his running mate Sarah Palin and her family, have been returned.

He insisted that the clothes would be donated to charity after the election.

Washington - The race for the US presidency was entering the backstretch Monday as Democrat Barack Obama pushed to keep Republican John McCain on the defensive in states long regarded as Republican strongholds - like Virginia and Florida.

Senator Obama was to deliver a speech in the hotly contested manufacturing-intensive Rust Belt state of Ohio that his campaign called his "closing argument."