CORAL GABLES, Fla. – President Bush worked to allay fears about the financial crisis on Friday then left the White House and headed south to raise nearly $2 million for the Republican Party in South Carolina and the battleground state of Florida.

GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who has taken a hit in the polls in recent weeks, is slightly behind his Democratic rival Barack Obama in Florida, which offers 27 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

“The president is convinced that John McCain has still time to close up this race,” White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One after being asked if the president had voiced any concern about McCain's standings in the polls. “He remembers when he was running in 2000 and how far he was down before the election and he came back to win.”

A Gallup Poll conducted Oct. 7-9 showed Obama with a 10-percentage-point lead over McCain, 51 percent to 41 percent.

In early October 2000, Bush was down by 11 points, 51 percent to 40 percent, in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. Bush came back quickly, and for rest of that campaign's Gallup polling Bush either led or was about even with Gore.

Bush attended a fundraiser at the home of Sergio Pino, a developer and entrepreneur in south Florida, where he raised more than $500,000, according to Republican officials.

After the fundraiser, Bush met with members of the Cuban-American community at a restaurant called Havana Harry's in Coral Gables to underscore his administration's commitment to a free Cuba and commemorate Cuba's declaration of independence from Spain on Oct. 10, 1868.

Bush said his administration would not change its economic embargo against Cuba until it lets its citizens freely express themselves.

“Our message is to the Cuban people: 'You're being repressed by a handful of elites that are holding back your great potential,” said Bush, who lamented that the Cuban government led by Raul Castro had rejected U.S. hurricane aid.

“It's so sad that right off the shores of our great nation that believes in human rights and human dignity exists this – this dungeon,” he said. “But someday Cuba will be free.”

Later he traveled to South Carolina to attend an event on Kiawah Island that was to raise $1.4 million for the Republican National Committee.