After a lacklustre debate, John McCain has less than four weeks to turn the race for the White House around, as observers began to wonder aloud whether the Republican who once dubbed himself the Comeback Kid could win.
One day after Senator McCain faced-off in the second of three debates against Barack Obama, political observers said the exchange failed to upset the front-runner status of his Democratic rival, as the contest ticks down to the November 4 vote.
The Wall Street Journal reported, ''Despite John McCain's best efforts, the Arizona senator didn't knock Mr Obama from his cool evasion or even do much to rebut the Democrat's talking points.
''This isn't enough to change the dynamics of the race.''
Snap polls by US television networks awarded the debate, the second of a trio of presidential clashes, to Senator Obama.
Democrats are now optimistic that with two of three rhetorical contests over and both, according to opinion polls, won by Senator Obama the Illinois senator is an increasingly good bet to clinch the one poll that counts.
Political analyst Roger Simon pronounced neither Senator McCain nor Senator Obama the winner, saying that, from his vantage point, both failed in ''delivering a knockout punch''.
''The trouble for John McCain, however, is that he needed one,'' Mr Simon wrote in The Politico online daily newspaper.
Following the debate, Senator Obama continued to sound an upbeat note on the stump in the Midwest state of Indiana, promising Americans ''better days ahead'' despite plummeting global stockmarkets, rising job losses and dark clouds of economic gloom.
In an interview with ABC News, he bemoaned the ''irrational despair'' afflicting tumbling stockmarkets, and said President George W.Bush was too weak to mend the crisis.
The Democratic candidate said, ''I do think that the administration is hampered by the fact that people don't have a lot of confidence in the president'', by extension casting doubt on a McCain Administration that promises more of the same economic policy.
Senator Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, accused his Republican rivals of ''injecting fear and loathing'' into the campaign by, for example, stoking rumours that Senator Obama has terrorist ties.
Senator Biden dismissed as ''malarkey'' Republican allegations of unsavoury ties between Senator Obama and William Ayers, former leader of the Weather Underground, a home-grown terrorist group active in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Senator McCain, at a rally along with running mate Sarah Palin in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, reined in his aggressive campaign, admonishing a local Republican activist for repeatedly referring to ''Barack Hussein Senator Obama'', a deliberate invocation of a given name the Democrat shares with the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
McCain spokesman Paul Lindsay said, ''We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric, which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character and experience that voters will base their decisions on.''
Despite their generally civil exchanges in Tuesday's encounter, observers continued to note the markedly nasty tone between the two candidates.
The New York Times excoriated Senator McCain and running mate Mrs Palin, the Governor of Alaska, for the tone of the Arizona senator's campaign.
''Ninety minutes of forced cordiality did not erase the dismal ugliness of his campaign in recent weeks, nor did it leave us with much hope that he would not just return to the same dismal ugliness on Wednesday,'' the paper lamented.
A CNN poll after the debate found 54 per cent of those polled declared Senator Obama the winner and 30per cent said Senator McCain had been the victor. A CBS survey also gave the debate to Senator Obama, 40 per cent to 26 per cent.
Gallup's daily tracking poll yesterday reflected the high stakes for Senator McCain, giving Senator Obama a nine-point lead nationally, while the Democratic nominee is also increasing his edge in key battleground states. AFP