New poll shows birthers growing

Majority of GOP, Southerners question president's birthplace Posted: August 01, 2009 - 12:40 am Eastern By Drew Zahn © 2009 WorldNetDaily In a recent telephone poll conducted by Research 2000 for the website Daily Kos, 58 percent of Republican respondents when asked if Barack Obama was born in the USA answered "no" or "not sure." The Daily Kos, which calls itself "the largest progressive community blog in the United States," nonetheless found a reported 527 Republicans and 601 independents to accompany its 743 Democrats in answering the question. Among Republicans, 28 percent answered they believe Obama was born outside the U.S., while 30 percent answered "not sure." Among independents, 83 percent affirmed their belief that the president was born in the U.S., while an overwhelming 93 percent of Democrats insisted it is so. While the disparity between Republicans and Democrats is massive, the poll also demonstrated that where respondents live also makes a significant difference. According to the website's fine print, "A total of 2,400 adults nationally were interviewed by telephone. A cross-section of calls was made into each state in the country in order to reflect the adult population nationally." Of those respondents living in the West, Midwest and Northeast, 87, 90 and 93 percent, respectively, affirmed they believe Obama was born in the U.S. In the South, however – a region defined to include the states of Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas – fewer than half have accepted the president's claimed birth in the U.S. Only 47 percent of the South's respondents answered the question "yes," while 23 percent answered they believed Obama was born on foreign soil, while 30 percent were unsure of his birthplace. Robert Schlesinger, author of the Thomas Jefferson Street blog on the U.S. News & World Report website, commented on the regional disparity: "Dixie may once have been the so-called land of cotton," Schlesinger writes, "but it has become the cradle of creeping Birtherism." With all categories and regions combined, the Daily Kos reported 77 percent believe Obama was born in the U.S., while 12 percent were unsure. The website then offered the following commentary on the remaining 11 percent of respondents, who answered they believe Obama was born abroad: "11 percent of Americans are Obama-hating conspiracy theorists," writes the blog's founder, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga. Schlesinger offered a different summary. "I had assumed that the Birthers were a loud, bemusing hyper-minority in the GOP, so the poll numbers are startling both for the region and for the party," he writes. [CONTINUE READING]