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

[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.