McCain's pollsters doubt poll

John McCain is embracing his underdog status in the presidential race.

But that isn't stopping his campaign from questioning the latest poll to say he trails Democrat Barack Obama by double digits.

The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey out on Tuesday gave Obama a 49 percent to 37 percent lead.

McCain's pollsters, however, question the findings. In a memo, they note that 39 percent of respondents in the poll identified themselves as Democrats, 27 percent as independents, and 22 percent as Republicans, leaving 12 percent unaccounted.

The party identification gap is wider than in most polls and bigger than in recent history, and the number either not knowing or refusing to declare their party allegiance is also high, the pollsters say. If those numbers were more in line, they say, McCain would trail by single digits.

"McCain’s double digit deficit is not a reflection of reality, simply a result of an unusual party identification result in this survey," they write.

"Furthermore, since the LA Times does not release other demographics like age and ethnicity, it becomes very difficult for an independent observer to verify whether a survey is methodologically flawed or simply an outlier in public opinion trends."

A Newsweek poll released last week that gave Obama a 15-percentage-point lead also had a skewed sample, the pollsters say.

McCain's campaign also points out that the daily Gallup tracking poll has the candidates tied at 45 percent.