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JANUARY 26, 2003 - Right-wing puppet pollster John Zogby,
whose polls are used by the likes of NBC and reported widely in the
non-M/I media, made clear today in an interview given on a talk radio
station in California that he knows his own numbers showing a
virtual dead heat between Kerry and Dean are complete bunk.
Asked by the host why his poll results
are so different from everyone else’s, showing Dean only trailing
Kerry by 3 points, 28-25%, within the poll's margin of error,
Zogby’s response made clear his poll should not be taken seriously
but, in fact, is only trying to push a result he is trying to
achieve.
Zogby told the KFWB host, “Well, I
don’t see a scenario where Dean wins this, it just seems he will
return to previous levels of support.”
In other words, his stand out, attention-getting poll which contradicts all the other polls - which say Kerry has a wide lead and Dean is only battling for second or third - is not to be taken seriously. Look at his comment. He just released
a poll showing a dead heat, Dean gaining fast and now only 3 points
behind Kerry, but he doesn’t “see a scenario where Dean wins this.”
If Dean really had gained as his poll
says and pulled within three points of Kerry, Zogby would be saying
Dean clearly has the momentum, Kerry is on the way down, and so Dean
has a good shot at it.
But Zogby’s goal is working the
right-wing’s pre-planned storyline, to stem Dean’s slide, try and
get him up into second in New Hampshire, in particular ahead of
Clark, and so to try and knock Clark out and keep Dean viable for
when the media starts to push him as the favorite again.
Notice the second part of Zogby’s
comment: “…he will return to previous levels of support.” He
repeated that again later in the interview. And, of course, when
asked about third place, said he thought Edwards would overtake
Clark. Remember, the question posed to Zogby by the interviewer was why his poll differed so much from all the others. Zogby completely avoided responding, instead said he doesn't "see a way" what his poll says could possibly happen in reality, and then, again, talked about what he thinks the results show - all without ever responding to the actual question: why are your poll results so different from the others?
The best part was that the radio host,
who is a credible and generally non-biased reporter in this case,
entirely let Zogby get away with this. He did not ask how Zogby can
release a poll showing Dean with great momentum and tied with Kerry
in one breath and say in the next not just that he still thinks Kerry has the
better chance, but that he doesn’t see any “scenario where Dean wins
this.”
So keep this all in your head – every
time you see a Zogby poll referred to in this race, you know exactly
what you are seeing: a right-wing push of the storyline. | 
