Zogby to Bloggers: "Calm It Down .... Look at Your Baseball Cards"

It's hard to tell whether this is a reaction to "It's about time!" complaints that would tend to come from the center-right, or to "How dare you!" protests from the left (my money is on the latter), but pollster John Zogby took an unprofessional turn in his Saturday report (to be replaced in 24-48 hours) that was released in the wee hours this morning.

The substantive news is that Barack Obama is ahead 5.7% in Zogby's three-day rolling average. Obama came in 10 points ahead in one-day Saturday polling (52-42, after trailing John McCain 48-47 on Friday (weekend polling bias, anyone?).

But it's what Zogby wrote in his third paragraph before showing the daily rolling-average results that was the attention-getter (bold is mine):

"Remember, as I said yesterday, one day does not make a trend. This is a three-day rolling average and no changes have been tectonic. A special note to blogger friends: calm it down. Lay off the cable television noise and look at your baseball cards in your spare time. It is better for your (and everyone else's) health."

Regardless of where Zogby's complaints are primarily originating, his comment is more than a little condescending and arrogant.

Of course, nobody should be on the receiving end of profanity or verbal abuse, and I'm not excusing that if it's occurring (if it is, he really should tell us, because we'll then have a much better idea of what side it's coming from).

On the other hand, John, if you can't stand the heat, get off Mt. Olympus and get out of the polling business.