President-elect Obama and McCain meet for the first time since the election Zogby won’t duplicate Obama poll

Pollster John Zogby has rejected a conservative commentator’s offer to sponsor a poll to test the knowledge of people who voted for John McCain.

The commentator was proposing to mirror a poll of Obama voters that caused a political uproar when it suggested that Obama supporters didn’t know what they were voting for.


John Ziegler, a Burbank-based documentary filmmaker, had commissioned the poll of 512 Obama voters. The results delighted the right and inflamed the left, drawing widespread coverage on the Web, cable news and radio.

Zogby International said in its summary of the results: “Just 2 percent of voters who supported Barack Obama on Election Day obtained perfect or near-perfect scores on a post-election test which gauged their knowledge of statements and scandals associated with the presidential tickets during the campaign, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.”

Ziegler posted the results and a video of Obama voter interviews at HowObamaGotElected.com.



John Zogby said in a statement defending the poll: “We reject the notion that this was a push poll because it very simply wasn't. … In this case, the respondents were given a full range of responses and were not pressured or influenced to respond in one way or another. This poll was not designed to hurt anyone, which is obvious as it was conducted after the election.”

Zogby told Politico in a telephone interview that the volume of reaction was in the top 10 percent he had received to his 24 years of polling.

This week, Ziegler proposed to pay for a similar poll of McCain voters. But Zogby told Politico he will not do the poll the same way.

“I am happy to do a poll of both Obama voters and McCain voters, with questions that I formulated and sponsored either by an objective third party or by someone on the left, in tandem with a John Ziegler on the right — but poll questions that have my signature,” Zogby said.

“I believe there was value in the poll we did,” Zogby added. “I also believe it was not our finest hour. This slipped through the cracks. It came out critical only of Obama voters.”

Ziegler responded: "I am shocked by John's statement that he would do another poll but not an exact duplication. What is the point of that? Not their finest hour? This a was great poll. This didn't fall through any 'cracks,' they just got scared. ... The point of the poll was for my documentary on the media's impact on voter knowledge."

Ziegler had e-mailed Karen Scott, managing editor of Zogby International: “I am writing because there is great interest in commissioning the same poll of McCain voters, and I have obtained the money to do so. If done right I think this can be a win/win for everyone. Please advise me as to the company's thinking on this.”

Scott e-mailed Ziegler in response: “Thank you for being in touch with us; I am sorry no one got back to you yesterday. Your request has been reviewed here at all levels, and we are not interested in this project at this time.”

Ziegler told Politico: “I’m outraged. I find this amazing. There was nothing wrong with the original poll. I’m the exact same person I was last week. The left-wing blogosphere basically demanded this.”

Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight.com, who has closely followed the controversy, said he saw "significant problems with this poll that would not have been resolved merely by interviewing McCain supporters in addition to Obama supporters."

"Many of the questions included items that were misleading, taken out of context, or arguably untrue, but which were represented as factual to the respondent," Silver wrote in an e-mailed statement. "The only reason that Mr. Ziegler's original survey got stupid answers from Obama's supporters is because he asked stupid questions."