Davis, on a conference call with reporters, said that the campaign has had "the best ten days of polling" since the convention.
"We think we've shaken off the effects of the financial collapse that have suppressed our numbers prior to the last debate. Our own data has us dead even in the state of Iowa."
(Davis said that the Obama campaign's data was also close in Iowa -- although the Obama internal polling gives Obama a double-digit advantage."McCain strategist/pollster Bill McIntruff said that when the "structure" of American party politics is taken into account, since 1980, at their worst, Republicans have ended a presidential cycle being down only five points in terms of party identification.
"We see intensity
increasing with some of the core parts of the Republican identification. Party identification on the exit polls is going to be in
the historic norm of minus three to minus five," he said. And "John McCain, in our stuff, has
always run ahead of party ID. It's helping create a very very close result."
McInturff projected a turnout of between 130 and 135 million people.
McCain political director Mike DuHaime said that the campaign had knocked on 5.3 million doors ove the past seven days and made 1.3 million telephone calls. DuHaime said that McCain and the Republicans are outperforming Democrats in terms of the numbers of absentee ballots requested and returns.
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