John Zogby: Giuliani's Comments on Obama 'Backfired'

Criticism from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani that President Barack Obama does not love America has not hurt the president's poll numbers, according to senior analyst John Zogby, founder of the Zogby Poll, who appeared Friday on Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."

"The comments were under the bottom, they don't help the discourse and there's some blowback, they backfired, which enhances the president's position," Zogby said. "The president's numbers stayed at about 46 this week. Some have him at 47 and 45, but there was nothing this week that caused the president's numbers to go down."

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Many Americans, perhaps as many as 50 percent, may agree with Giuliani's sentiments, according to Zogby, but "it doesn't help the discourse and it's coming from a bona fide hero, Giuliani, who at a time of crisis, I'm not going to say we throw all criticism out the window, of course not, but to challenge the man who's been elected twice, whether you like him or you don't, by majority" was a bad idea.

Zogby, co-author of "First Globals: Understanding, Managing, & Unleashing the Potential of Our Millennial Generation," said he understands Obama's calculated decision to avoid referring to the Islamic State as Islamist extremists since the U.S. is trying to build a coalition of Muslim nations including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Turkey, to fight the group.

"It is not a time for the president of the United States to be suggesting that the problem is Islam or that the problem is rooted in religion," he said. "Most reasonable people understand that this is a band of thugs, criminals, and psychotics who are utilizing some demented form of Islamic language to justify their psychosis. It's not the time for him to be alienating the very allies of those major nations that we're going to need to take the lead in the region to combat [ISIS.]"

Rather than engaging in name-calling, Zogby suggested that intelligent discourse is needed.

"Are we calling for a massive ground invasion? Are we calling for a massive bombing campaign? Are we talking about committing American troops in some form or another? Does that make things better? Could it possibly make things worse?"

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