Republicans still kookie, even if Kos pollster is crooked

Often people say, "You can't trust the polls." Well, usually they're pretty accurate. But not if a pollster conducts fraudulent work, which is the allegation a leading progressive web site, Daily Kos, had made against Research 2000.

It's sort of difficult for me to follow the statistical evidence trail that strongly suggests Research 2000 made up results for the polls the firm conducted for Daily Kos the past few years.

However, the bottom line is clear. Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas says, "I hereby renounce any post we've written based exclusively on Research 2000 polling."

That includes a well-publicized Research 2000 survey of Republicans which found that an amazingly large percentage believed that President Obama was racist (31%), socialist (63%), and not a U.S. citizen (36%). Plus, about a quarter thought both that Obama "wants the terrorists to win" and their state should secede from the union.

This high degree of craziness from GOP'ers was embarrassing even to Fox News, which, if I recall correctly, attempted to discredit the poll with "consider the source" (Daily Kos) comments.

So Moulitsas realized that his lawsuit against Research 2000 would make the conservative crowd happy, since now his Republicans are Crazy finding had lost its reputability. This led to his post today, "R2K or not, Republicans are still nuts."

It provides evidence from other pollsters that supports many of the Research 2000 survey conclusions. Such as:

-- 42% of Republicans believe Obama wasn't born in this country
-- 52% of Republicans think ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama
-- 67% of Republicans think Obama is a socialist
-- 57% of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim
-- 38% of Republicans say that Obama is "doing many of the things that Hitler did"
-- 24% of Republicans say that Obama "may be the Antichrist"

Well, if Republicans wonder why they've lost political power in the last two national elections, it's because most Americans (thankfully) realize that our country can't be led by the Village Idiot.

There's plenty of room for honest disagreement about Obama's policies and which way forward is best for the United States. But so long as a large percentage of Republicans hold such crackpot ideas, the GOP deserves to be a minority party.

Comments

[Dan]

You are a smart guy, Brian. But it is a common failing to attribute extra levels of credibility to a source or an outcome when it reinforces your own opinions. You have no risk to your own personal image when you assume (or believe) the worst of Republicans, since you are already predisposed to disagree, oppose or be critical of them personally and their policies. If a study showed that Democrats were equally kooky on key issues, I would guess you might take a bit more cautious or skeptical view...or dismiss it outright.

[DJ]

If one is going to argue that Obama is a socialist president (he is), then one also has to argue that GW Bush was a socialist president as well (he was, i.e.: prescription drugs, TARP). For all their differences, Obama and Bush have more in common than “R is good, D is bad” type Republicans will admit. For example, portions of Obama’s 7/01/2010 immigration reform speech were nearly verbatim to Bush’s IR push.

Suspicion about Obama’s past is in large part Obama’s own fault for being so secretive. For example, why provide only a short-form certificate of live birth and not the long-form certificate detailing the name of the hospital and the doctor who delivered him? What does it indicate that he does not want you to know? Gore, Bush, Kerry, and McCain provided their medical records and college transcripts, but Obama will not. What do they contain that he does not want you to know? If there’s nothing to hide, there’s no reason to hide it – and if there’s something to brag about, Obama the self-promoter would be the first to show it off.

Republicans may be kookie for believing he’s a closet Muslim. But blindly handing the power of the presidency to an unknown and a denier like Obama (Re: Wright/Pfleger/radical religious left association, ACORN association, Blagojevich pay-go, Sestak job, etc., etc., etc.) is dangerous and far kookier. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/02/opinion/main4145761.shtml