This just in: 3 out of 5 Republicans are idiots, as are 50% of Southerners

[greyyguy]

Not to say that those of you who are Republicans or who live in the South are idiots- but it is saying that you are in larger than normal idiotic company.

The Daily Kos and Research 2000 had a poll to find out if people thought that Barak Obama was born in the US. There is a surprisingly loud "Birther" movement that claims he was actually born in

Comments

[team_jessie]

Seriously?

C'mon. We know this poll is basically trying to say "Everyone who differs from you in opinion - you erudite and sexah Liberals, you - is a stone-cold moron. Way to side with the cool kids, bro!"

I don't actually think that 42% of Republicans believe this nonsense... I don't even know that I believe that 42% of Republicans surveyed believe this. It sounds as contrived and purposely inflamatory as the Rush Limbaugh babblings you reference.

And having just been to "the south", I didn't get the impression that all the people living and working there were idiots. Not even 47% of them. I mean, yeah, they were *looks left, looks right* Steelers fans, but they appear to have been educated. (Little "long suffering Eagles fan" joke for ya there. Sorry, it won't happen again.) :-D

Now granted, I didn't conduct a fair, balanced, unbiased and inter-rater reliable poll while I was down there, but something tells me "Daily Kos" didn't either.

I'm not actually meaning to attack YOU in this - I get that your point is to encourage people to think for themselves and do some fact checking - but these numbers have got to be contrived or manipulated in some way, and I think the survey itself could stand to be investigated. This really appears to be tailored towards stirring up Liberal ire and keeping the GOP Hate Machine oiled and chugging along.

Believe me, I find the fearmongering of the 'Pubs talking heads to be extremely tedious if not outright dangerous - but the wholesale hate and mudslinging coming from the left is just as reprehensible. I mean, coming out with a survey that says half your countrymen are dullards? About as subtle as a sledgehammer.

[greyyguy]

It wouldn't be half- it would be about 20-25%, assuming that there is a relatively even split between Democrat and Republican, and 5-10% Independant/Other. And I would tend to agree with South Park that at least a quarter of the people are morons ;)

You have a good point about the data. All that has been released so far are preliminary bits of data without the polling methodology. I would be very interested to see what questions were asked and what the answer options were.

That said- the whole "Birther" thing is getting out of hand. It was not actively denied by elected Republicans like it should have been. Instead many of them toyed with it when asked. Declining to give a definite answer. Lou Dobbs spent a number of his shows talking about it on CNN. It has been getting a lot of press. And while it says nothing about Obama, there is even a "Birther" bill going through Congress to require people wanting to be President to provide a birth certificate. The bill would do nothing, but it does help keep the idea alive.

I agree that 50% of Republicans and Southerners are not idiots (or at least no more so than anyone else), but if they parrot things like this without checking it then they certainly are not smart either. I am hopeful that these results are tweaked, or the poll itself was slanted, but at the same time I would not be terribly surprised that they accurately show people's opinions.

[crwilley]

there is even a "Birther" bill going through Congress to require people wanting to be President to provide a birth certificate

And the infuriating thing is - he *did* provide his birth certificate during the campaign. There's scans of it on the Internet, independent media personnel saw the original document, and the county clerk (I think?) verified that the information on the scan matches the records in his files. It's not like Obama could go door-to-door to every house in the US to show everyone the certificate...

[greyyguy]

But that isn't a birth certificate. That is a printed out copy of a certificate of live birth. Entirely different. In "Birther" minds. At least that was the version I saw someone talk about when explaining how he was not yet convinced of Obama's birthplace.

[team_jessie]

I hadn't heard of the "birther" movement before this. Sounds pretty moon-batty. We need to hire Buzz Aldrin to punch all these conspiracy nuts.

[greyyguy]

It is pretty moon-batty. But the problem is that it seems to be used as another whisper campaign by Republicans to help distract from real issues. They might not be saying it publicly in front of cameras, but they also are not treating it as the crazy idea that it is. Instead they refuse to say anything about it and let it keep going, just like they did with the "he's a secret Muslim" thing.

[crwilley]

The thing about the poll is - this isn't some Internet poll that ran on the Daily Kos site, and Markos didn't go calling people personally; they hired Research 2000, which is as reputable as any other polling firm out there.

Apparently another polling firm also found the results hard to believe, decided to try to confirm, and added a "birther" question to their present poll in Virginia. Only 79 of the first 168 calls agreed unequivocally that Obama was born in the United States.

(ET fix link.)