Only 42 Percent of Republicans Say the President Was Born in America

Ben Smith has the results of a disturbing Research 2000 poll that asks Americans whether they “believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not.” Independents (83 percent) and Democrats (93 percent) say he is. Republicans are more divided: Forty-two percent say yes, twenty-eight percent say no, and thirty percent aren’t sure.

A 2007 Rasmussen poll about the 9/11 attacks, which found 35 percent of Democrats said Bush might have known about the attacks in advance, became a frequently used bludgeon against the party and its voters. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing happen here.