Both sides do it:
-In Tennessee only 33% of GOP primary voters think Barack Obama was born in the United States, while 45% do not.
-In Georgia 40% of Republican primary voters think Obama was born in the United States, while 38% do not.
-In Ohio 42% of Republican primary voters think Obama was born in the United States, while 37% do not.
I’m still shocked that no serious people have latched on to britherism, in a contrarian “I’m no Glenn Beck fan but when you look deeper you’ll see there really are reasons blah blah blah”. I guess there’s still time.
Jack Bauer
Voltaire
bootsy
“Britherism”? What, do you deny that Obama has spoken in front of B’nai B’rith? A shondah this is.
New Yorker
What, Donald Trump isn’t a serious person to you?
David Koch
How dare you insult Trump, Palin, and Arpaio by saying they’re not serious people.
Chris
As wonderful as Birtherism is as an “I’m a True Conservative” marker, I still think it also kills you with moderates. That’s the problem.
Chris
@Jack Bauer:
This.
The people who believe in death panels and birth certificate conspiracies are the linear descendants of those who believed the Jews and Masons controlled society.
amk
doesn’t ppp have better things to poll ?
demimondian
Oh, there’s no doubt that Trump, Palin, and Arpaio are serious. The question, in their case, is whether they are actually people.
After all, none of them is a corporation, right?
Yutsano
YAY BIRFERS!! Oh how I missed your beautifully elegant sense of insanity!
This bothers me as someone who was also born in Hawai’i. But then again I’m as haole as they get.
Jeffraham Prestonian
Apologies for commenting here several times, today, but my second home, Sadly, No! has been hosed all day! :)
I’m a Tennessee Dem, but since we have open primaries, I will be voting for The Enemy, tomorrow. I think I will vote for Newt, as there seems to be Newtmentum here in TN, and I’d like to keep the Clown Car fully fueled as long as possible. Plus, it seems that Santorum (a/k/a “Brown Eye Gravy”) may actually win the state, and I’d love to see Rmoney come in third.
Whaddya think? The Ging, or Man-on-Dog? Who deserves my vote more?
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MikeJ
@Jeffraham Prestonian: Newt, no doubt about it. The last thing we want is for any of them to start looking inevitable.
juicetard(aka liberty60)
@yutsano
Just what a LIEberal would say.
Jeffraham Prestonian
@MikeJ: Thanks. That’s my logic, too. Can’t wait to cast that vote, tomorrow. :)
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beltane
@Jeffraham Prestonian: Tomorrow’s Vermont primary is also open but I will not be voting for any of these assholes. I want turnout to be low, low, low. The Romney campaign keeps calling my mother even though she has never voted in a Republican primary. I wonder why they haven’t called me.
demimondian
@Jeffraham Prestonian: Man-on-dog, definitely. He needs to win Tennessee.
Quincy
Can we get these numbers some more national attention? With Rush in full meltdown mode, the Republican politicians on the defensive and the media briefly entertaining GOP extremism as a story-of-the-week, maybe, just maybe, we can prompt one of the big MSM outlets to float a “Birtherism, that’s kinda racist right” story.
Jeffraham Prestonian
@demimondian: Interesting. Why? I mean, it looks likely he will win, anyway… so why not take a shot at making Rmoney #3 in Tennessee…?
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El Cid
I dunno — I’m impressed that 4 out of 10 Georgia Republicans think Obama was born in the US.
It’s like that moment of the, what, 2004 Republican Presidential nominee debate when the 10 were asked if they believed in evolution: sure, most people focused on the 7 who didn’t, but I was pretty impressed that 3 out of 10 Republican candidates admitted that they worshiped Satan, right there in front of a live audience.
demimondian
@Jeffraham Prestonian: I expect an inverse Bradley effect in the booth — a lot of folks will decide that they just can’t vote their consciences, and will throw the switch for Rmoney at the last minute.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@MikeJ: I’m with that sentiment.
Jeffraham Prestonian
@demimondian: Hmmm. Now I really am torn!
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Maude
@Jeffraham Prestonian:
Newt is too icky to vote for. How could you ever look those cats in the eye if you did that?
Jeffraham Prestonian
@demimondian: Still, your logic is sound. I’ll vote for Frothy Mix, as my actual goal is to deny Rmoney a win.
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tomvox1
Not birtherism but equally stupid from “left wing” pundit, Ruth Marcus:
Obama, Romney similar in some ways
You can’t make this shit up.
Anne Laurie
Nah, DougJ, the Serious People of our Very Serious Media prefer the subtle double-reverse-twist for their birtherism:“What does it say about President Obama that he hasn’t been able to convince our good Heartland American(tm) voters of his legitimacy? Is he just that incompetent, or does he merely fail to respect this socially significant voting bloc? In either case, how can the rest of us accept the legitimacy of a President who doesn’t pander to the lowest instincts of his worst enemies?”
I know both David “Possum” Brooks and Tom “Moustache of Understanding” Friedman were flirting with this line of attack back as early as 2009, and I suspect the less restrained WSJ ravers went straight to copy&paste from the likes of Freeperville and the RedState Strike Farce.
Jeffraham Prestonian
@Maude: Well, it’s my first ratfuck vote. Be gentle! ;)
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Maude
@Jeffraham Prestonian:
Come back after your vote and tell us who got it.
gnomedad
What Birthers Believe
TaosJohn
I’m in Tucson on family business. Visited my mother’s accountant today. He’s a great guy, smart as the proverbial whip, personable, knows his business inside and out. A great accountant. When we were done, he launched into a brief rant about the government:
“You know, I don’t like Barack Obama. He scares me. I don’t know where he’s from.”
Too bad I didn’t have the presence of mind to say, “Um… Chicago?”
MattR
It started off as a joke on the Borowitz Report, but a couple informal studies have shown that there may be some merit to the hypothesis that birtherism increases as the economy improves.
YellowJournalism
Palin is a birther? I thought that was one of the few areas where she wasn’t bat-shit insane and devoid of a clue. (Not that she hasn’t accused the President of not being American enough, but I always took that as shorthand for Ni-CLANG!)
Ethan Hoddes
Sullivan briefly flirted with something like birther agnosticism a couple years back, I think mainly to try to hedge the Trig Trutherism. He briefly made noises about “He should just show the birth certificate” before someone pointed out to him that he already had (referring to the releases before the Trump-related release), and then he backed off.
tesslibrarian
As someone who has to process passport applications as part of her job, let me just say there are a stunning number of people (mostly over 50, all white) who do not realize Hawai’i is part of the United States.
I have overheard and been asked myself if the passport book or passport card will allow them to go to Hawai’i. Some other librarians will just say “yes,” but I point out that it’s a state. It’s not uncommon to get a look that says they don’t believe me (or that perhaps I am part of the conspiracy!) when I tell them “Hawai’i is a U.S. State, just like Georgia or Alaska.”
I admit I added Alaska to the spiel after Sarah Palin became a household term. It became fun to say after she went all “what’s Obama trying to hide?” with her Trump buddy.
(edited for clarity)
Jeremy
Neighbor was visiting friends in L.A. recently. Pablo is a musician, and so are his friends back from HS even.
So Claude, his buddy, invites his friends to dinner and to meet Pablo and talk. Well-known guitar god, in the middle of big sit-down dinner, says “So, you all know Obama is a Mooslim, right?”
And Pablo guffaws, alone. Big silence. Later he asks Claude what happened, Claude tells him everyone knows this guy is crazy on politics, but he’s so good on guitar they don’t want to make him feel bad about it.
I say, “Pablo, perfect response: unable to not guffaw! Maybe it will open a tiny crack for him through which a gleam of reality can creep!” Pablo says probly not.
My wife was a reference librarian once, people didn’t believe New Mexico was a state! It says Mexico right in there they would say! Never heard of the Mexican War, the purchase of the tiny bottom of Arizona, nothing.
So I totally think not believing Hawai’i is part of the USA is where half of the birtherism comes from. You never go broke underestimating the education of the average Repugnant.