McCain pollster revisits '08 campaign

From NBC's Mark Murray As Republican pollster Bill McInturff sees it, two differences would have made last month's presidential contest much closer -- had the financial collapse occurred on Dec. 15 instead of Sept. 15, and had the Republican National Committee been able to raise more than $200 million in the final two months, without any restrictions on how the McCain campaign could use it. But, of course, neither happened. McInturff, who was McCain's pollster and who has since returned to become the Republican half of the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, says the McCain camp was in the process of unveiling its "Chicago" ad on Sept. 15. That advertisement, which linked Obama with Tony Rezko and even Rod Blagojevich (!!!), was the beginning of an effort to raise this question with voters about Obama: What else do we not know about him? "It was not the killer ad, but it was the right opening," McInturff said. Yet the economic collapse that began on Sept. 15 forced both campaigns ... (link)