Beneath the Birther Toplines

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Public Policy Polling has a new poll out on the national ‘birther’ movement. And it turns out to be another fascinating look at the mystic overlap between ideological and simple ignorance.

Of the 24% of the population in the ‘birther’ category, one interesting thing to note is that more Americans seem to think Obama was born in Indonesia (10%) than Kenya (7%), which suggests not only that a frighteningly large number of Americans are birthers but that they have a shockingly low level of basic ‘birther’ literacy. As you know, according to orthodox ‘birther’ theory, Obama was born in Kenya.

Even better, 6% fully concede that Obama was born in Hawaii. They just don’t believe Hawaii is part of the United States.

[ed.note: Special thanks to TPM Reader SR for flagging my attention to the poll.]

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