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WILMINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain rolled out a new stump speech Monday that embraced a reality confirmed by his very presence in eastern North Carolina: He has become the underdog in the race for president.

With three weeks to go before the election, McCain told the crowd, he trails in the polls.

"We're six points down, the national media has written us off," he said, eliciting boos from a crowd of about 2,000 supporters at Cape Fear Community College. "Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes and planning with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Sen. (Harry) Reid to raise taxes, increase spending and take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections."

After more boos, McCain rallied the audience to cheers.

"But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them."

McCain gave substantially the same speech in Virginia Beach, Va., before coming to Wilmington on Monday. Both states - and especially those two regions - were Republican strongholds earlier this year.

Now, they are rated tossups in the presidential election by multiple pollsters and political analysts.

But after a five-month absence of its candidate from the state, the McCain campaign showed new signs it would fight for North Carolina. Late Monday night, it announced vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Thursday would host a free public rally at Elon University in Elon before a private fundraiser in Greensboro.

The McCain campaign has ground to make up. Longtime Republican strategist Carter Wrenn said Obama's campaign gets some credit for outspending McCain on television here and deploying an aggressive grass-roots effort in the state.

"But a big part of part of it is the national trends are going toward the Democrats," Wrenn said.

In fact, some of McCain's harshest rhetoric Monday was not directed at his opponent but toward Bush.

"We can't spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight, waiting for our luck to change," he said. "The hour is late, the troubles are getting worse, our enemies watch. We have to act immediately, we have to change direction now."

McCain's speech focused mainly on the economy and when he did hit Obama, it was over economic proposals. He said that Obama's plans would raise taxes and stall the economy, something that Democrats say is untrue.

McCain's appearance was marked by an unannounced shift in plans. The occasion was to be a town hall meeting, according to publicity that preceded the event. And McCain himself started his remarks by saying, "My friends, I'd like to make some remarks to you and then I'd like to open it up for some questions or comments you might have."

But at the end of his speech, speakers blared "Gonna Fly Now," the theme from Rocky, and McCain moved about the front rows of the audience shaking hands. Then, he left the auditorium.

A spokesman who talked to pool reporters traveling with the McCain campaign Monday said the decision to shift to a rally rather than a town hall meeting was made Sunday and could not explain why McCain said he would take questions. A second spokesman, contacted after the event, said the campaign wanted to emphasize the new speech, which offered "a different tone" than had prevailed in past weeks.

In one noticeable switch, McCain did not use the line, "Just who is Barack Obama" Monday. In past weeks, that line has incited crowds at McCain events to shout back words such as "Terrorist!"

That sort of invective made the campaign the target of criticism, particularly from Democrats who contended that McCain couldn't win the policy debate so he was resorting to personal attacks.

"I know how these things can get," said state Sen. Tony Rand, a Fayetteville Democrat who spoke to a pro-Obama rally before the McCain event. "I would hope that we would direct more of our attention toward the issues."

There were those who attended Monday's rally who believed McCain should have kept up the pressure.

Chris Neal, 55, who works for a Wilmington-area public utility company, said she had "trust issues" with Obama.

"I don't trust him with the security of the country. I think he has his own agenda," she said. Asked what that agenda might be, she said, "I don't know, that's what scares me."

At one point in his speech, McCain rallied the crowd by tapping his personal history as a war hero.

"I know what fear feels like, it's a thief in the night that robs your strength," McCain said. That gave no fewer than three audience members occasion to shout, "Like Obama."

After the rally, McCain shot a commercial in Wilmington before leaving the state shortly before 8 p.m. His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, is expected to appear at a fundraiser in Greensboro on Thursday.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com