Obama birth poll shows striking regional divide

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

A poll conducted for the Daily KOS (and this is a real poll,  not one of those unscientific citizen grand jury polls) asked the simple question: “Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?” The results were incredible:

Daily KOS Birther Poll Results

Daily KOS Birther Poll Results

Graphic source: The Washington Monthly.

In most of the country, denialists are in the fringe, but in the South, the view is almost mainstream. This is really discouraging about the region where I live. I fear the southern results would be really scary if one took out the African American responses. As you would expect there is even deeper divide between Republicans against Democrats and Independents. Less than half of Republicans are confident that Obama was born in the US (no wonder Joe the Plumber was their hero).

In both this question, and the second question on the poll: “Do you believe that America and Africa were once part of the same continent?” African American and Latino voters did overwhelmingly better than their white counterparts (as younger respondents did better than those 60 and over).

I need to think more seriously about retiring to New Mexico (where I got my hat).

Further commentary on the poll at Politico.com, Huffington Post.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
This entry was posted in Birth Location, Birthers, Polls and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

22 Responses to Obama birth poll shows striking regional divide

  1. Bob says:

    Washington Independent on the poll:

    “In order for white voters to drive the South’s ‘don’t know’ number to 30 percent and it’s ‘born outside the United States’ number to 23 percent, as many as three-quarters of Southern whites told pollsters that they didn’t know where Obama was born.

    One thing to keep in mind, if only a quarter or a fifth of white Southerners believe Obama was born in the United States, that’s more than voted for him last year in some states. Obama won 14 percent of the white vote in Louisiana, 14 percent in Mississippi, and 10 percent in Alabama.”

  2. kimba says:

    * And that’s what I like about the South *

  3. misha says:

    You’ll notice, it’s similar to the map at the time of slavery, and the CSA/USA – 1861 to 1865.

  4. misha says:

    One more thing: Reuben Greenberg is the exception, not the rule.

  5. kimba says:

    This is really no surprise based on where we know the birther nerve centers are: Texas with Ed Hale, Georgia for Swensson and the Grand Jury folks… Orly doesn’t fit, her motivation is related to Israel, she’s with the neocons. Berg, well, hard to tell, he’s just into conspiracies….

  6. misha says:

    That’s what I have written about Orly before: she is making nice with vicious anti-Semites, because of her pathological hatred of Obama. They will turn on her, when she is no longer useful to them – Andy Martin, for example.

  7. I think the STRONG CORRELATION across age groups, geographic areas and political party between responses on the two questions, one a basic grade school science question, and the other an opinion on Obama’s birth place, reasonably lead one to say that the preponderance of Obama denialists are stupid.

  8. richCares says:

    “Obama denialists are stupid”
    Correct, and the right wing trademark is ignorance, especially in science.

  9. kimba says:

    More blacks knew the correct answer to the basic question than any other group.
    http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2009/7/30/US/320

  10. misha says:

    Hey, hey, hey…Palin’s church says the earth is 5,000 years old, and humans walked with dinosaurs.

    She’s an expert on EVERYTHING.

  11. What I find fascinating about this is that in most of the country, the birthers outnumber the “unsure” (the “Oh, I’m not saying he was or he wasn’t. I’m just trying to find out” contingent).

    But in the South, it’s the other way around. I don’t know what that means, but I suspect it’s more popular because it makes the argument more palatable.

    Birthers in the rest of the country know they’re fringe, so they don’t have to hide behind the fig leaf of uncertainty.

  12. Expelliarmus says:

    It might just be that with a critical mass of birthers around, it creates uncertainty among a demographic that would otherwise reject the idea outright.

  13. Lupin says:

    Several days ago I already wrote that Art. 1 (the only article) of the Birthers Constitution was:

    “No g*d*mn n*gg*r shall be eligible to become President of the United States.”

    That’s what it boils down to.

  14. Epectitus says:

    Hey, hey, hey…Palin’s church says the earth is 5,000 years old, and humans walked with dinosaurs.

    So, by the way, does Phil at RSoL.

  15. brygenon says:

    So mostly old white southern Republicans.

    Gee, there’s a shocker.

  16. Bob Weber says:

    “What I find fascinating about this is that in most of the country, the birthers outnumber the “unsure”

    ********************

    Since birfers are a tiny minority everywhere but in the South, it could simply be a statistical artifact. Quite possible, given that the sample size in these polls is usually rather small.

  17. poll says:

    The poll is skewed slightly. It doesn’t ask if he was “natural born” (i.e., both parents U.S. citizens), only if he was born in the U.S.

    There is reason to believe that Obama’s father was a Kenyan citizen when Obama was born, making him ineligible to be President.

  18. dunstvangeet says:

    No, it asks if they believe he is eligible to be President of the United States, poll.

    And show me where in the constitution it says that you have to have both Parents be U.S. Citizens to be a “Natural Born” Citizen?

    Furthermore, would you say that to Americans, English Common Law would be more known than a Swiss Philosopher? If so, then why would the framers, basing their writing on a swiss philosopher and knowing that English Common Law would be much more widely known, not define what they meant by Natural-Born Citizen? Furthermore, if they weren’t using English Common Law, then why did they insert it other places in the constitution, such as Haebus Corpus, which comes from English Common Law?

  19. Obama’s father was a citizen of the UK and Colonies (not Kenya) when the President was born, and that does not make him ineligible.

  20. TRUTH says:

    Something sad about this idiots comment and lots of those that read it, since “it” appears to be making fun of birthers, you side with him and DO NOT click Dislike the comment, even though he said the “N” word. That’s real classy of you all. It is a dumbass comment no matter WHO says it.

  21. Gordon says:

    TRUTH do you have something to say or are you focused on a popularity poll?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.