Stupid or Ignorant: 1/3 Republicans now say Obama is a Muslim (WP)

[mike r]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081806913.html

Poll: 1 in 5 Americans thinks Obama is a Muslim
By Jon Cohen and Michael D. Shear
Wednesday, August 18, 2010; 9:53 PM

The number of Americans who believe -- wrongly -- that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now account for nearly 20 percent of the nation's population. Those results, from a new Pew Research Center survey, were drawn from interviews done before the president's comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, and they suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues.

The president's religion, like his place of birth, has been the subject of Internet-spread rumors and falsehoods since before he began his presidential campaign, and the poll indicates that those rumors have gained currency since Obama took office. The number of people who now correctly identify Obama as a Christian has dropped to 34 percent, down from nearly half when he took office. White House officials expressed dismay over the poll results. Faith adviser Joshua DuBois blamed "misinformation campaigns" by the president's opponents...

Among those who say Obama is a Muslim, 60 percent say they learned about his religion from the media, suggesting that their opinions are fueled by misinformation. But the shifting attitudes about the president's religious beliefs could also be the result of a public growing less enamored of him and increasingly attracted to labels they perceive as negative. In the Pew poll, 41 percent disapprove of Obama's job performance, compared with 26 percent disapproval in its March 2009 poll.

More than a third of conservative Republicans now say Obama is a Muslim, nearly double the percentage saying so early last year. Independents, too, are now more apt to see the president as a Muslim: Among independents, 18 percent say he is a Muslim, up eight percentage points...

[bigwillq]

1. delete

my bad. guess I need to read more closely. lol :rofl:

[Turbineguy]

2. Being stupid

make being ignorant easier.

[david13]

3. I wish he was. That may mean that he would be able to relate

better to the muslim world. It would be a diplomatic asset.
But it's just the same bs insanity that has gripped much of this country. They think they get to determine what other people are. It don't work like that. A muslim, or your religion is not what other people think it is. It is what you say it is. And I think Barack has said he's a Christian. That is the only thing anyone can go by.
dc

[Coexist]

4. as a comparison, 19% of Americans had a favorable view of Dick Cheney

at the end... wanna bet they're the same 20ish percent?!

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I'm surrounded by a nation of mental midgets.

[PM Martin]

6. Elephant burns the cross!

Seriously, these are the same 20% whom still worship Bush and Cheney.

[mmonk]

7. They are mentally sick people.

If I live to be 100 years old, I will never think a republican voter during this period of history as an intelligent human being.

[dmallind]

8. They are neither mutually exclusive nor mutual prerequisites

With no false boastfulness or false modesty, I suspect few, but by no means zero, people could honestly call me stupid. Many many many could honestly call me ignorant. I am ignorant of all kinds of things. The best way to make a Bechamel sauce. The rotational velocity of Jupiter. Exactly how Bach is superior to, say, Purcell. Countless other things of which I am profoundly and admittedly ignorant.

The people who think that Obama is a Muslim are much more likely to be stupid than ignorant in my opinion (but then again detailed knowledge of this demographic is something about which I not only admit but cherish my ignorance). If they were merely lacking knowledge then even a passing curiosity and a feeble ability to apply critical reasoning would have disabused them of this notion by now. Of course not everyone has easy access or the inclination or the available opportunity to peruse unbiased news sources, but certainly more than 2/3 of US Republicans do. And any one of them who has and maintains Obama is a Muslim is stupid much more than ignorant.

I may not care or know how to make a Bechamel sauce, and I may not have any interest in finding out, but if the perfect recipe were slathered over almost any reputable news source and internet news/discussion site and media outlet for the last eighteen months or more, I'm pretty sure I would have absorbed it by now.

Something to do with eggs and cream is the best I can think of by the way......

[pipi_k]

9. Wait till they hear he was born with "666" on his left testicle

:evilgrin:

[KamaAina]

10. These were no doubt the same ones who screamed bloody murder about Rev. Wright

not Imam Wright. Reverend Wright.

:dunce: