Zogby telegraphs the result he wants

Drudge tries to curdle the cream in my coffee this morning with a statement by pollster John Zogby that this is “Kerry’s election to lose.” Reading this TownHall article on Zogby’s comments, it’s clear there’s no there there. Zogby takes some dubious historical precedents (the John Adams-Thomas Jefferson race???) and extrapolates them into modern politics. On Kerry’s ability to come from behind - “Zogby said to remember Gov. Bill Weld, who was thought to be the favorite against Kerry but who lost a close election when Kerry came alive and beat him” – Zogby utterly disregards the context of this “victory.” It wasn’t that Kerry suddenly came alive and dazzled Massachusetts voters. In a word, he cheated:

So let's go back to 1996, to Kerry's reelection campaign against then-Governor Bill Weld, specifically to the night Weld met Kerry at the senator's wife's Beacon Hill mansion. They finalized an unprecedented agreement to limit advertising spending to $5 million apiece, and to limit the use of personal funds in the campaign to $500,000 apiece.

Good government types hailed the agreement as a major breakthrough. Kerry and Weld basked in the plaudits of editorialists the nation over. Kerry described the pact as "a model for campaign reform across the country."

But a funny thing happened on the way to Election Day. Kerry didn't just violate the deal, he pulverized it. Running out of money in the waning days of October, Kerry mortgaged and remortgaged the Louisburg Square house, ultimately pouring $1.7 million in personal funds into his campaign. For those of you keeping track at home, that's $1.2 million more than the agreement allowed.

As he made a mockery of the pact, he did something else distinctly distasteful. He accused Weld of violating the agreement, a charge that seemed specious at best, an outright lie at worst.

I often point out that the blogosphere is full of characters who love to buck the conventional wisdom, if only for the temporary fame of a contrary, and controversial, opinion. I can’t help but feel that Zogby was trying to shake up some conservatives at the Free Congress Foundation and grab a headline (mission accomplished!) but it will be worth it if, as the TownHall article concludes, it shakes conservatives out of complacency.