And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

Polling has become a pervasive presence in our political life sometimes to a fault.

But there are a few people who have lived through the growth of the polling industry in

politics from the very beginning, and who have played a major role, and a positive role

in its application.

One of those people is Peter Hart who, for half a century, has been doing opinion research,

some pioneering focus groups in politics.

He is one of the major players in the Wall Street Journal, NBC polls that have been remarkably

good over the years.

And Peter has incredible insights into campaigns and into public figures.

We sat down the other day to talk about this campaign and its unique characteristics.

Peter, you're a certain iconic figure in American opinion research, and certainly in political

in the political world.

I have this image of you at birth coming out and interviewing everybody in the delivery

room about how they felt about the experience.

Because you're the master of focus groups and so on.

But tell me a little bit about how you grew up and how you came to be a poster and be who

you are today.

Well, I grew up in Berkeley, California.

My father was an English professor at UC Berkeley.

It was my mother who I think was major influence in terms of my career because she was always

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