WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain has pulled even with Sen. Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential race, according to two respected polls: Has he really done it? And if so, how?

A Rasmussen Reports daily poll carried out Friday and published Saturday put McCain of Arizona, the Republican putative presidential nominee, at 43 percent, tied with Obama of Illinois, his Democratic opponent. It was the first time McCain had pulled even since Obama became the undisputed Democratic nominee with the withdrawal from the race of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., on June 3, Rasmussen said.

"It remains to be seen whether this recent tightening of the race reflects real change or is merely statistical noise," the Rasmussen pollsters cautioned.

But they also said their sampling of 1,000 potential voters with an error margin of plus or minus 2 percentage points now showed McCain enjoyed a favorable-unfavorable advantage of 56 percent to 41 percent, compared with weaker figures of 44 percent to 41 percent for Obama.

The results of a Newsweek poll released Friday showed more sobering news for Obama. It kept him in the lead, but only by 3 points -- 44 percent to 41 percent. This marked a dramatic 12-point cut in the advantage Obama enjoyed in the previous Newsweek poll a month earlier, when he led McCain by a crushing 51 percent to 36 percent.