Birtherism: Don’t Call It “Fringe”

Ken AshfordObama OppositionLeave a Comment

A whopping 58 percent of Republicans either think Barack Obama wasn't born in the US (28 percent) or aren't sure (30 percent). A mere 42 percent think he was.

That means a majority of Republicans polled either don't know about — or don't believe the seemingly incontrovertible evidence Obama's camp has presented over and over and over that he was born in Hawaii in '61.

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/27-30. All adults. MoE 2% (No trend lines)

Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?

Yes      77
No       11
Not sure 12

So 11 percent of Americans are Obama-hating conspiracy theorists. How do they break down?

         Yes   No   Not sure
Dem       93    4    3
Rep       42   28   30
Ind       83    8    9

Northeast 93    4    3
South     47   23   30
Midwest   90    6    4
West      87    7    6

It looks like there's a strong regional aspect to this (the chart denotes ALL respondents, regardless of political party):

Birthers

Politico’s Glenn Thrush asks, “When do we start a serious dialog about the Birther movement being a proxy for racism that is unacceptable to articulate in more direct terms?”

By the way, I gave kudos to the conservative National Review a week or so ago for boldly stating that this whole birther nonsense was bullshit.  I take it back.

UPDATE (MORE CHARTS): Brendan Nyhan compiles a useful chart of Obama-related misconceptions:

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