By Matt Spetalnick

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Monday sought to assure supporters he can come back to defeat Democrat Barack Obama in the face of drooping poll numbers and doubts in his own party.

"My friends, we've got them just where we want them," McCain told a rally in the battleground state of Virginia as he attempted to breathe new life into his campaign after a two-week tailspin due largely to his reaction to the U.S. financial crisis.

With three weeks to go until November 4 Election Day, McCain awoke to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll that had him down 10 points to Obama, 53 percent to 43 percent, and showed McCain was stalled or losing ground on a range of issues.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Monday showed Obama with a 4-point lead among likely voters. An average of recent polls by realclearpolitics.com has Obama up 6.8 points.

The Illinois senator has surged based on his steady response to the Wall Street crash, with polls showing he is more trusted by Americans to handle economic issues, and McCain's standing has suffered as a consequence.

"We have 22 days to go. We're 6 points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes," McCain told thousands of cheering supporters in Virginia Beach, joined by his vice presidential running mate, Sarah Palin.

Obama, in Toledo, Ohio, laid out what he called an economic rescue plan for the middle class that would include a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for some homeowners and limited penalty-free withdrawals from retirement accounts this year and next.

He would also give businesses a new American jobs tax credit for each new employee they hire in the United States over the next two years.

"We can restore a sense of fairness and balance that will give every American a fair shot at the American dream. And above all, we can restore confidence -- confidence in America, confidence in our economy, and confidence in ourselves," he said in speech excerpts released by his campaign.

NEW SPEECH

Many Republican supporters are expressing displeasure at the McCain campaign's negative tactics, after a week in which his camp tried to raise doubts about Obama by emphasizing his ties to a former 1960s left-wing radical.

"It's time for John McCain to fire his campaign," conservative columnist William Kristol wrote in The New York Times.

He said the Arizona senator's handlers should "let McCain go back to what he's been good at in the past -- running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate."

McCain unveiled a new stump speech that reprised some of the themes from his well-received September speech accepting his party's nomination -- that he has been a fighter all his life and would be one as president, ready on the first day to tackle the problems of the U.S. economy and foreign policy challenges.

"The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now. We have to fight, and you and I know how to do that" he said.

McCain avoided the kind of divisive rhetoric that he employed last week, although he accused Obama of conspiring with the two top Democrats in the U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, to raise taxes in order to pay for ambitious spending plans.

"The last president to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Senator Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover," McCain said, referring to the 1930s Depression-era president. "That didn't turn out too well."

McCain stopped short of detailing new economic proposals to show concern for millions of Americans seeing their savings vanish in the Wall Street meltdown. Aides said he is considering plans along the lines of lowering tax rates for investors, the capital gains tax on profits, and dividend tax rates.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed; writing by Steve Holland; editing by Mohammad Zargham)