5:53 p.m. E.T.

ESSENTIAL READING: Republican pollster Bill McInturff is one of the smartest, most clear thinking people in politics.

His new slide deck on “10 Questions That Will Help Decide the Election” is non-partisan, fascinating, and straight forward all at once.

McInturff is at the powerhouse GOP polling firm Public Opinion Strategies in Northern Virginia. He is the Republican player on the venerable NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls and a colleague of Romney pollster Neil Newhouse.

He has kept a somewhat low profile of late, so this deck, prepared for clients, gives us a window into one of the more analytical minds in the field as Election Day approaches.

Read it here.