Zogby International Inc.
James Zogby Disappoints
The best thing about After Words, the book interview show, is that it pairs an author with someone who knows the subject and often comes at it from a different point of view. The best example of this was David Frum's superb interview of Victor Navasky a year ago, for Navasky's book, A Matter of Opinion. Frum was both respectful and sharp, and the polished Navasky humored him for a while before he grew impatient with Frum's description of the errors of the left, and defenestrated him. I forget the specific exchange, though I do recall that Frum tried to grill Navasky over the alleged anti-Semitism of Nation magazine writers. (Frum and I share a hobbyhorse; he just rides it backwards).
Anyway, last night, the interview went along on data points surrounding Al Qaeda before Wright climbed up to the high board: the despair in the Muslim world. "Islamic societies are in a crisis... All the statistics are so dismal... the absence of knowledge, the widespread illiteracy, all these things create depair..."
This is Bernard Lewis regurgitated by a new generation, and some of it is true. I have commented often on the lack of reading I observed in Syria. The problem is that it is purely materialistic. The statistics are economic ones, and they often seek to valorize Israel, because it is so modern. Those of us on the left who are concerned with Muslim hearts and minds are not talking strictly about their pocketbooks. Other things beside western progress puncture the spirit of Arabs. Like, injustice.
Zogby knows this, and could have educated a great number of us by expressing this point of view. The closest he got was "Doesn't the loss of control and policies we've perpetrated contribute as well?" He meant, I will bet, the Occupied Territories, and the charnel house that David Frum and John Podhoretz have made of Iraq. But he didn't say so out loud. And Wright then pushed the question aside with another serving of pablum. Zogby had something of a fawning smile throughout. This was a true misfortune, a lost opportunity to extend the dialogue between worldviews...
Elsewhere: Polls, Spinsters, Integrity, Ferrer
Political Arithmetik looks at poll numbers since British officials foiled the airline terror plot and finds not much has changed.
"In polls taken since the British terror plot against airlines, five of the seven polls have shown a reduced Democratic advantage...Interestingly, the post-plot polling does not show any evidence for an upturn in overall presidential approval."
Although Democrats gained ground in a number of Senate races, Republicans are on pace to retain their majority, according to Zogby poll numbers on WSJ.
Greg Sargent catches a Washington Post reporter wondering how exactly to cover people who constantly lie to him.
The Ethics Commission reports that there is no problem with the state attorney general sitting on the board of his family's trust fund.
A professor at Fordham thinks blacks in Brooklyn's 11th have to learn to vote strategically.
The Integrity Party hands in their petitions to the Suffolk Board of Elections. read more »
And, as you can see from the picture above, Fernando Ferrer is back, and endorsing Hiram Monserrate.
-- Azi PaybarahGatemouth: Cuomo, Gruomo, Shmomo
The polls, as we already noted, certainly don't indicate the sort of laugher that the convention results suggest. (The last Zogby poll showed Mark Green within two points of Cuomo among likely voters.)
And in the last day, we've seen a good-ish amount of traffic in comments and emails predicting the current frontrunners - the front-running, hydra-headed beast at least one commentator calls "Gruomo" - could even clear the way for a third candidate to become competitive by savaging each other and, well, just being generally annoying to people in the party.
Place of honor among these observations must be given to onetime Brodsky supporter and longtime Politicker reader Gatemouth, who the Cuomo camp will have to hope is not a leading indicator of public sentiment:
One of the greatest divendends of the Brodsky withdrawal(and I supported him)is that it opened up the opportunity for the argument amongst Cuomo and Green supporters as to which of their candidates had the biggest ego and most annoying personal chracteristics. Such arguments, if informed by the facts, are sure to be an anecdotal embrassment of riches, and serve the further purpose of allowing each side to avoid touchy questions like which of these guys is actually qualified to hold the job. And, let's not even get into the company each of them keeps keeps! Although I'd previously dismissed her, as "a good idea for a candidate", Denise O'Donell is looking better and better with each passing day.
Creamee Becomes Creamer
The survey also showed that the two Democratic candidates for state attorney general, NYC Public Advocate Mark Green and former cabinet Secretary Andrew Cuomo, are locked in a tight battle for public support. Cuomo leads Green, 28% to 26%, with three other candidates far behind.
That's puts the race about as close as anything I've seen, coming well within the poll's margin of error. It also provides an interesting contrast to the "Andy Creams Green" storyline from yesterday's convention.
If Andrew Cuomo's last bid for statewide office is any guide, the convention result is the better leading indicator than any public poll taken this early. Then again, if Cuomo's last bid were any guide, he would have been the one getting creamed yesterday.
Go figure.
