John Zogby
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John Zogby (born 1948) is a noted American political pollster and first senior fellow at The Catholic University of America's Life Cycle Institute. He is known for both his phone polling and interactive, Internet-based polling.
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[edit] Polling track record
Zogby correctly predicted the cliffhanger result of the 2000 presidential election for George W. Bush, in contrast to most other pollsters who had expected Bush to win easily. In 2004, however, his predictions failed to materialize. Before polls had even closed in the 2004 presidential election, Zogby predicted a comfortable win for John Kerry (311 electoral votes, versus 213 for Bush, with 14 too close to call), saying that "Bush had this election lost a long time ago," adding that voters wanted a change and would vote for "any candidate who was not Bush." While admitting that he was mistaken, Zogby did not admit any possible flaws in his poll methods, insisting that his predictions were all "within the margin of error." Despite his personal prediction, his final poll showed Bush with a one point lead over Kerry, making him one of the 'winners' among pollsters according to the New York Post and Boston Globe.[citation needed]
At the actual times of him saying that Kerry would win, the numbers always favored Bush. While on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, he said he felt that Kerry would win due to the undecided voters.
Zogby has had better success with other elections, both domestic and foreign. He correctly called the 2001 Israeli election for Ariel Sharon, the 2000 Mexican election for Vicente Fox and again in Mexico with the victory of Felipe Calderón in 2006.
In 2006, Zogby phone polling correctly called the exact margin in the three closest United States Senate races. His interactive polling correctly called 17 of 18 races, but was widely off on races that were not close.
[edit] Education
Zogby is a graduate of Le Moyne College and Syracuse University. He has taught history and political science at the State University of New York, Utica College, and at the Arthur Levity Public Affairs Center at Hamilton College. A trustee of Le Moyne College, Zogby received the Alumni Award in June 2000.
[edit] Personal life
Zogby's brother is James "Jim" Zogby, founder of the influential Arab American Institute. Jim Zogby is also employed part-time by Zogby polling. They both grew up in Utica, New York, born to Lebanese Catholic immigrants.
Zogby has three sons with his wife, Kathleen Zogby, a special education teacher. His interests include golf, basketball, and soccer coaching.
[edit] Political activities
Best known as an interpreter of the political scene, Zogby had a brief stint as an aspiring politician himself in 1981, when he ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Utica, New York. He describes himself as a liberal Democrat [citation needed].
Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
Zogby is also scheduled to host a radio show on a new progressive talk radio network created by Nova M Radio Inc. in Phoenix. Zogby will co-host a weekly one-hour show, “The Pulse of the Nation,” where he polls listeners on hot-button issues from politics and pop culture, then reveals results of his own polling. The network debuts Oct. 30, 2006. It is an effort by Anita Drobny and Sheldon Drobny, co-founders of the Air America Radio Network.
