One of these things is not like the others...

www.washingtonmonthly.com...

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER.... A new Research 2000 poll conducted for Daily Kos asked respondents a rather straightforward question: "Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?" Since the president was born in the U.S., ideally, the results would be around 100%.
birthers.png

They weren't. There was, not surprisingly, a significant partisan gap. Only 4% of Democrats are confused about the president's place of birth. The number is slightly higher among independents, 8% of whom got it wrong. Among Republicans, though, 28% -- more than one in four -- believe President Obama was not born in the United States.

[edit on 1-8-2009 by CuriousSkeptic]

I'll save you people the trouble...

It's all a liberal conspiracy! Obama is a racist, communist, foreigner, drug addict!

There now let the intelligent discussion begin about how stupid this whole birth certificate issue is and how much it destroys the credibility of the Obama opposition.

washingtonindependent.com...

The breakdowns of the Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll that asked 2,400 people about where they believe the president was born are revealing. As Steve Benen and Markos Moulitsas both pointed out, only in the South is there a sizable number of Americans with questions about the president’s citizenship. While around 90 percent of people in the Northeast, Midwest and West know that Obama was born in in United States, only 47 percent of people in the South believe this. Twenty-three percent think he was born somewhere else; 30 percent don’t know.

But how many Southern whites aren’t sure whether the president has lied about his citizenship? The “South” defined by the poll includes 30 percent of the country’s population, in twelve states: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. That’s around 99.2 million people, of whom 61.3 million are non-Hispanic whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the exit polls in those 12 states, 30.6 percent of the voters in this region who cast ballots in 2008 were black, Hispanic or members of another minority group.

Oh wow 2400 people, that's certainly representative of the entire country.

/end_sarcasm

This issue is what is known as disinformation and deflection. The reason Obama doesn't do everything he can to completely stop this issue is that it distracts people that would otherwise be hypercritical of his policies to an issue with no merit and thus out of the way.

While people are focused on this non issue, Obama can concentrate on policies that these people would otherwise be strongly against. It also makes a person that believes that Obama is not a Natural Born Citizen look crazy thus destroying credibility for any other concern they have.

This is a divisive technique, a non issue that is perpetrated by the administration to herd a group of people into a bracket. This way when these people say anything against another issue and try and be credible the administration can come back with, "Yes, and you also believe that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii too "

While an overwhelming majority know that Obama is indeed a natural born citizen and thus legally our president, the fringe right also perpetuates this myth to attempt in vain to discredit the president and all of his policies.

It's a game these people play to try and divide us against ourselves.

Originally posted by whatukno

This is a divisive technique, a non issue that is perpetrated by the administration to herd a group of people into a bracket. This way when these people say anything against another issue and try and be credible the administration can come back with, "Yes, and you also believe that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii too

"

It's a game these people play to try and divide us against ourselves.

Sometimes I read the things you type and I'm like hmmmmm?

But this comment of yours hits the nail squarely on the head. But why would the presidents administration want to perpetuate this divide? Is the political system we enjoy about to implode making way for a change we can believe in? Capitalism for the rich and Socialism for the rest? A new and improved United States of America?

Just curious....I have no personal investment in any political party, never have, never will. I'm still waiting for that one candidate that walks and talks common sense.

reply to post by whatukno


I would tend to agree. Even though, I do believe there is some questionable evidence of his place of birth. It is very much a divide and conquer issue.

But who are "they" dividing? A poll recently (sorry I can't give you the exact data) showed that about 27% of voters "identified" with the GOP. So if you take half of that number, the actual number of voters who may be at all interested in the "Birther" movement is pretty damned small. I'd say that's far fewer than the number who think the CIA killed JFK or that Dick Cheney is a war criminal. A conservative talk radio host (NOT Rush) yesterday had a very sensable answer to the "Birthers". It was, in effect: Even if you're right, no court will touch it and no congress will impeach, so why are you wasting your life over it?