McCain on Polls: 'I don't agree' with them David Edwards and Andrew McLemore

Published: Sunday October 26, 2008





Print This Email This Do most polls show McCain slipping farther behind Obama? Yes. Does McCain believe them?



Not so much.



Sen. John McCain refused to answer questions from NBC's Tom Brokaw on "Meet the Press" Sunday morning about national polls that show the GOP candidate far behind his Democratic opponent on every major issue but the war in Iraq.



In one poll shown by Brokaw, Sen. Barack Obama has a 39-point lead on the issue of health care. But McCain said it would be a waste of his time to talk about polls with which he doesn't agree.



"We have polls showing us three or four points behind," McCain said. "I'm sure we don't want to spend the morning arguing about polls that are accurate or inaccurate."



The Republican candidate told Brokaw that he can "guarantee" victory come election night in what he claims will be a tight race that will keep Americans "up late."



McCain referred to a Zogby poll that places Obama in a less commanding, 5-point lead and said Americans "just figured out" that Obama's platform isn't what they want.



"He wants to spread the wealth around and every time there's a poll, there's a different tax plan," McCain said. "He wants to raise taxes, in a time of economic difficulties. The last time a president of the United States did that was a guy name Herbert Hoover."



But a pollster explained why he thinks polls that continue to show a close presidential should be treated with skepticism in an article on Salon.com.



"Leave it to the Republicans to doubt the polls, to pin their hopes on the possibility that all these different survey firms have got it wrong," wrote pollster Paul Maslin. "From my perspective, barring some unforeseen circumstance in the next 11 days, all that remains to be seen is the margin of victory, and whether, as these polls seem to be hinting, we're headed for a landslide."



This video is from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast October 26, 2008.









Download video via RawReplay.com







