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Posted on 11/11/2005 8:01:47 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
ITHACA NY--Heavily criticizing the Bush administration’s Middle East policy, pollster John Zogby, president and CEO of Zogby International, spoke yesterday evening at the Alice H. Cook House to a large group of faculty and students in a lecture entitled “The Political Landscape: The United States and the Middle East.”...
“When you stop and weigh [the war] and think in terms of the lives being lost and weigh it against Saddam’s crimes, yes, there might be a rationale, but you’ve got to know where you’re going; we’ve had no plans other than to bomb the hell out of Baghdad, paint targets on our troops … I feel no glory or justification [in this war] ... I want to pound some sense into those people,” Zogby said.
Zogby examined public opinion trends in the U.S. and Middle East since President George W. Bush’s election in 2000, comparing Bush’s approval ratings to a “bouncing ball,” bouncing high in the air at first, but eventually bouncing lower and lower and falling faster. On 9/11, Zogby said Bush got his first “bounce” of the ball as citizens bonded with leaders and themselves, resulting with Bush obtaining approval ratings as high as 90 percent. Yet only two weeks after the attacks, Zogby noted in a poll that only 50 percent of Americans supported the war on terror if it would last over two years.
“[Americans] want the war won, the war over and our troops out of harm’s way ... I learned that the US was still very much in the post-Vietnam era,” Zogby said.
According to Zogby, Bush’s second “bounce” of the ball occurred when troops invaded Iraq in March of 2003, with his approval rating bouncing up to around 68 percent. His third “bounce” occurred with the capture of Saddam Hussein in December of 2003, with his rating going up to around 55 percent.
“But like this ball, [Bush’s] surges were smaller each time and lasted shorter,” Zogby said.
Zogby also examined the Democratic campaign for president in 2004, starting with the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire in 2003. Zogby noticed as the campaign went on that early frontrunner Governor Howard Dean lost more and more points to Senators John Kerry and John Edwards.
“When we first polled the voters in the caucuses, most voters said they wanted a candidate that said what they believed in. But after [Saddam’s] capture, 84 percent of them said they wanted somebody who could defeat George W. Bush,” Zogby said.
Zogby called the 2004 presidential election an “anomaly,” noting that despite 51 percent of Americans giving Bush a negative job rating, and 55 percent saying the country was going in the wrong direction, Bush was able to grab 60 million votes and win 51 percent of the electorate.
Zogby blamed the outcome on John Kerry’s inability to connect with the five percent of undecided voters.
“John Kerry’s poll numbers were like a flat line on an EKG — always hovering around 48 percent. You get the bare minimum and nothing more. That’s what you get when you’re not George Bush. Kerry did not do enough to capture those undecided voters,” he said.
Zogby then moved to the topic of Middle Eastern attitudes and beliefs, harshly criticizing the government for its lack of communication in this area. He claimed that a culture of “betrayal and humiliation” permeates the area.
“[Bush] said ‘they hate us for our freedom and democracy, they hate us for our values.’ With all my experience with the Middle Eastern world, I find this very hard to believe,” he said.
Zogby cited polls taken in 2000 that showed a majority of Arabs held favorable views on American culture and values. But in a poll taken in the build-up to war, 89 percent of Arabs held unfavorable views towards the U.S.
“People don’t like being associated with an Axis of Evil — when they hear this, nationalism triumphs. In one fell swoop, we alienated most of the Middle Eastern world,” Zogby said.
Zogby severely condemned U.S. policy, claiming it is undoing any goodwill Arabs hold towards the US. He called attempts to reach out to the Muslim world “ham-handed.”
“We are selling our values like Uncle Ben’s Rice — Arabs are so easy to read, but we’re not communicating at all … Good police work will find the terrorists; you breed more terror by shutting off people,” he said.
Zogby claimed that Arabs held negative opinions of Bush due to his bonding with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the intense lead-up to war, and the Abu Ghraib scandal.
“We have no idea how devastating [the Abu Ghraib scandal] was. To many Arabs, we train our troops on how best to humiliate them,” he said.
Zogby held yet more criticism for the Bush administration during a question period following his lecture, painting a dark picture for postwar Iraq, and saying that the United States’ exit strategy must be to leave immediately.
He also predicted a “rendering apart” of the Republican base as the Christian right battled against other conservative intellectuals.
“What darkens things is the Christian right. They’re a contradiction to what the conservative ideology has always been about; they’re trying to impose their value system on everybody else and utilize the government to do so. They’re very similar to Wahhabism is this way,” he said, speaking of the fundamentalist Islamic movement.
Zogby also claimed that the word “liberal” has become dirty and “bankrupt of new ideas.”
Zogby was pessimistic of the future situation in the Middle East, saying that the next president would be likely to continue to hold a presence in the Middle East.
“We’ve managed to piss off the entire rest of the world,” he said. Zogby’s speech was well-received among students.
“He had some very insightful comments. I think he gave students a more global perspective of the changing Middle East,” Rahul Shah ’08 said.
Ahmed Mousa ’06, co-president of the Arab Students Association, considered the speech a rousing success.
“John Zogby is the perfect example of who we try to bring; not only because he is a Lebanese-American, but because he is a prime pollster and at the center of a lot of issues. His talk was excellent,” Mousa said.
Called the “prince of pollsters,” Zogby is a noted pollster who has correctly predicted the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections as well as elections in Canada and Mexico, and has polled in over 62 countries. He holds degrees in history from Le Moyne College and Syracuse University. He is listed with Leading Authorities and the Capitol Speakers Bureau in Washington, D.C.
Although Zogby has appeared on many news stations and newspapers, including NBC, ABC, Fox News, and Gannett News Service, he still claims the highpoint of his life was an October 2004 appearance on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
I was just going to say that Zogby spoke in Ithaca, where he knew he'd get a friendly hearing. Talk about a setup. Nobody questions 'the prince of pollster's' motives or prejudices.
This is a despicable, misleading lie. Zogby completely ignores the ambitious plans to create a democratically elected government and new constitution for Iraq which were accomplished at a nearly miraculous pace given the size of the task and the history of the region.
These are not the words of an analyst, but of a zealous leftist ideologue. One should never again trust a single conclusion or statistic that emanates from the Zogby organization.
Zogby is a one of those unicorns, a moderate Muslim. (Quisling, like the rest of the Left.)
Zogby sounds like a racist. He thinks Iraq is incapable of democracy and were better off being slaughtered by their beneficent dictator? Why? Are they too stupid? Backward? Illiterate? Anyone who talked like that about blacks would be condemned as a racist. What makes Iraq's any different?
Perhaps we can send our troops to France for some R and R. Oh wait a minute. The French appear to be still fighting an Algerian War that began 51 years ago. When is the War going to be over in France ?
The left is in complete denial of reality. On the other hand those with clearly functional brains rejoiced when we found out there were no stockpiles of WMD's. Why did we rejoice ? Because if Saddam had stockpiles we would have lost 1,000's of troops and Iraqi civilians from WMD attacks in the initial fight to take Baghdad. No one in their right mind thought that patrolling a middle eastern country with millions of islamist was going to be easy. Except perhaps for the ex-CIA leftist disinformation 'experts'.
What qualifies a hack like Zogby to speak on security policy?? He's a pollster, and not a very good one at that. This gives him some special standing to speak on Iraq policy? Oh wait, being an Arab-American makes him an expert. Well guess what John, this Arab-American says liberating Iraq from a mass murdering terrorist-tyrannt like Saddam was a good thing and history will vindicate our policy as having been ground-breaking and visionary. To paraphrase Churchill: If we don't take on Al Qaeda now in Iraq, then when? If not us, who? If not now, when? Give it up John. Go back to skewing polling results with all the other pollsters by over-representing Democrats and mis-calling elections based on your wishful thinking.
Exactly, since when do pollsters attempt to persuade opinion instead of methodically measuring opinion.
How can anybody honestly want to hire Zogby for his polling services. With such a strong opinion, you would have to question his objectivity on this or related issues. And if his opinin is formed on this issue, who is to say that other issues aren't in the back of his mind.
This guy should be out of business.
Whgat I find unacceptable is any recognition by Zogby--because he IS an Arab--is the animus of his race to western civilization, and by that I mean the very idea, not what can be measured by a polster. The fact that they REFUSE to assimilate to any meaningful degree, even in the United States (if we really look closely, we can see that) is a reflection of the whole Middle Eastern notion that they can cheerypick elements of our culture--the cars and other gizmos--and reject the whole package. Basically they remain parasites, just as much as the royal house of Saudi. We see the Japanese, the Koreans, the Chinese and the Hindus, who take science and CREATE things. On the otger ahds, we look at the Arab world abd they produce NOTHING of significance, the ultimate consumer society.
Ahmed Mousa ’06, co-president of the Arab Students Association, considered the speech a rousing success.
I wonder why Rahul and Ahmed liked it.
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Production/files/podhoretz1205advance.html
This is the best dissection of the "Bush Lied" Lie by Norman Podhoretz...THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE WHO IS SUBJECTED TO THE LIES OF THE LEFT!
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
I see more and more evidence that we are winning in Iraq. There is more and more Saddam nostalgia.
Well of course we follow our sting of distinguished campus speakers with ZOGBY. Keep in mind that he follows such alumni sages as Sandy the Burglar man and Janet (the torch) RENO. So it would be fitting that we would invitepossibly the most inaccurate pollster of our time based on the 2004 results. Gotta hear from those who manipulate. But there is some good news.
For all that was paid (don't even want to know what he charged) to hear this drivel--the transportation cost were presumably only from Utica. A veritable gift to the campus.
i never did,nor should anybody trust this slimebags polls
Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr - Died in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour in Iraq. He was 22. "Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, It's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."
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Christopher Reeve went there to
Yes...before his accident, he often returned to his old haunt of Risley Hall...
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