Pols vs. Polls

A quick hit:

Nicholas Kristof's op-ed in the New York Times today has an odd quote from John Zogby, the pollster, about how the Bush administration is trumpeting the results of a Zogby International poll. [link] Apparently, the poll showed that 23 percent of Iraqis favor the U.S. democratic model, but Vice President Cheney has been saying that Iraqis chose the U.S. model "hands down". And while 65 percent of Iraqis said they favor a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq within a year or less, Vice President Cheney says that a majority of Iraqis want American troops to stay at least another year.

So here's the curious quote from Mr. Zogby: "I am not willing to say they lied, but they used a very tight process of selective screening, and when they didn't get what they wanted they were willing to manufacture some reults . . . There was almost nothing in that poll to give them comfort." (Emphasis added)

Say what? Can someone please explain to me the logic of saying that the President and his senior subordinates are "manufacturing some results" yet not say that they're lying? If it were my poll, and they had misconstrued it so grossly, I'd be screaming "Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!" through a megaphone.