John Zeigler, Man of Class

8 Random Items for 11/19/2008 #8

Nate Silver has gained a measure of fame for running his website FiveThirtyEight.com. The site is a poll junkies dream. He has a lot of great information and his analysis is always a fun read. It was a lot of fun during the election season and I look forward to the direction he'll take the site when we're not in an election season. It's a site to visit every day.

At Silver's site, I read about a poll that Zogby had run of Obama voters. The purpose of the poll was to make Obama supporters seem uninformed when confronted with the most basic "facts" about Obama, McCain and their running mates. The questions were mostly (debatable) "facts" and then the respondent was asked to guess to whom the fact applied: Obama, Biden, McCain or Palin.

The poll was commissioned by John Zeigler, a former conservative talk radio host and is currently the man behind a documentary and website looking at how Barack Obama got elected. (No links ... and no intention of promoting this guy.) He is also a man of very little class.

After Silver referred to the poll as a "push poll" because of the misleading and incorrect "facts", Zeigler offered to give Silver an interview provided that Silver would publish a full transcript of the interview. Bad idea Zeigler.

Silver's questions were no nonsense and to the point. Zeigler started unraveling just three questions into the interview (calling Silver a "pinhead") and it just goes down hill from there. He even tries that old Republican trick of saying that the entire transcript wouldn't be published. Yes, Zeigler was convinced that he was getting the best of Silver. The capacity for self delusion by self described conservatives is never anything less than amazing. You should read it for yourself.

Near the end, Zeigler tells Silver, "I'm not a f***ing idiot." Are you sure pal? Are you sure?