War Room - Salon.com

Friday, Jul 31, 2009 07:20 PDT

Only half of Republicans think Obama's a citizen

A new poll shows a lot of Republicans doubt the president's eligibility for his job

Disturbing results from a new poll: Only 42 percent of Republicans believe President Obama is a citizen. 28 percent think he's not, and 30 percent say they're not sure.

Overall, the poll -- conducted by Daily Kos and Research 2000 -- found that overwhelming majorities of Democrats and independents do believe Obama's a citizen. 93 percent of self-identified Democrats, along with 83 percent of independents, gave that answer. Four percent of Democrats and eight percent of independents said they think the president is not a citizen.

My friend Steve Benen makes a good point in his post on the results: He points out that the regional breakdown in the poll's numbers may be even more interesting than the party breakdown. In most of the country -- the Northeast, the Midwest and the West -- large majorities say they believe Obama's a citizen. (93 percent, 90 percent and 87 percent, respectively.) But in the South, it's a different story. There, only 47 percent of respondents said they think the president's a citizen, while 23 percent said he's not and 30 percent weren't sure.