Birtherism Vs. ‘Knew’-ism: Just venting?
We’re all familiar with the NYT-CBS poll that says 1 in 4 Americans think Obama wasn’t born in our own country. Among Republicans, 45% say he was not born in the United States. This could simply be an outlet for venting out their hatred for our president as Politico suggests.
I’ve been looking for a good analogue to the willingness of Republicans to believe, or say they believe, that Obama was born abroad, and one relevant number is the share of Democrats willing to believe, as they say, that “Bush knew.”…
“How likely is it that people in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East?” the poll asked.
A full 22.6% of Democrats said it was “very likely.” Another 28.2% called it “somewhat likely.”
That is: More than half of Democrats, according to a neutral survey, said they believed Bush was complicit in the 9/11 terror attacks.
The data is from this Ohio University Poll in 2006, which Politico asked for breakdowns based on political affiliation. I’m partial to believe that in all actuality, that the majority Dems were just angry at the Bush Administration (for a variety of reasons) and did not really believe that the Administration had any hand in what happened on 9/11. The same could, then, certainly be true about Birtherism.
I guess the biggest difference was that you didn’t see any Dem candidates in ‘06 touting this conspiracy as a basis for starting a Presidential bid.