JOHN ZOGBY IS ONE OF THE GREAT POLITICAL POLSTERS OF MODERN TIMES

For more than 20 years this relatively young man has plied his polling skills on the national and international political scene. And the results of his and his company’s efforts have been nothing but spectacular. He employs the new science of internet polling as well as telephone and in-person questioning. Zogby was born after the war in 1948 of Lebanese parentage. All of his family were very scholarly and he became a professor of history and political science at upstate New York Universities. So his interest in politics came naturally.

It was in 1984 when he initially founded his company, Zogby International. But the first real attention he got was in the 1996 Presidential election when his final election poll came within an unheard of tenth of a point of the actual result. And in the following Presidential election he predicted the “cliffhanger” result that George W. Bush would narrowly beat Al Gore. That certainly gained him fame and everyone wanted to have him plan and help them with their strategy. His fame spread to many other countries, such as Israel and Mexico where he proceeded to work his magic as well. In a great modern day coup, in 2006, he polled and projected perfectly the results of 10 competitive U.S. Senate races here.

John calls himself a Democrat but never lets this interfere with his prognostications. These days besides looking deeply into the psyche of America, you will find him at Harvard University where he is a Senior Advisor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He also serves in many other institutions, assisting them in teaching many aspects of elective offices. He always says that if we do not study and teach how to do this, how can we expect to have good public servants. Our very future depends on his like, and even though he admits to an occasional flawed projection, he is still one of our best of breed.