The White House race is a close call.

You just can't keep a good man down. That might be the simplest way to sum up John McCain's campaign for the US presidency right now. He's not winning right now but he's running stronger than anyone knows how to explain. McCain is a fascinating figure with a compelling personal and political story. He was a feisty young pilot shot-down in Vietnam, where he was imprisoned for nearly six years and he's a feisty guy today.
That might be the simplest way to sum up John McCain's campaign for the US presidency right now. He's not winning, but he's running stronger than anyone knows how to explain.
Right now, McCain is in an uphill fight for the presidency and ought to be doing badly, hurt by an unpopular Republican incumbent, two wars and a terrible economy.
By contrast, Barack Obama is a charismatic candidate who is setting records for fundraising and voter turnout, buoyed by enormous media attention.
But McCain, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, is ahead among likely voters, 49 to 45 per cent.
Other polls still give the lead to Obama but even they routinely give him only a few percentage points and none puts him above 50 per cent.
That's even more remarkable after that tumultuous week of travel, during which Obama was virtually endorsed by the prime minister of Iraq, greeted by a crowd of 200,000 people in Germany, and given breathless coverage by the American media all the way.
The pollsters are looking at the race very differently from the way the press is, and they see something close to a tie.