Have literally millions of birthers been rounded up and moved to FEMA camps? Have they been murdered and buried en masse at sea? Did the appearance of Barack Obama’s long form cause blood pressure spikes and ruptured aneurysms leading to death of 1 out of 2 birthers?
Whatever the cause, millions of birthers have literally disappeared, according to a recent Washington Post telephone poll of 1006 adults taken April 28 – May 1, 20111. The Post said:
Overall, 10 percent of Americans say Obama was likely born abroad, down from 20 percent in an April 2010 Post-ABC poll. Almost all those who now say Obama was born in a foreign country say that it’s only their “suspicion;” just 1 percent claim “solid evidence” that the president was born elsewhere (9 percent said so last year).
I always thought that the birther numbers were “soft” but I never thought they were that soft. I hate to say “I told you so,” but the birther movement has peaked.
Learn more:
- Number of ‘birthers’ plummets – Washington Post
- Poll results
1Barack Obama released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, the day before the poll.
Ther’s a FEMA camp in the woods near my house, I will go visit tomorrow, last time I was there it was a small 2 room cabin, you can’t fill 2 million in that, but I will confirm , Misha is cioming with me, will report tomorrow
10% of the adult population (over 18) would be about 23 million.
The ones who left were all the ones who had been snookered by the birthers, bought into their bullshit, then as they got more and more loony, they were then stuck with them. So with the release of the “long form” birth certificate, they saw this as the first chance they got to get out and save a little face.
Looks like I was in the ballpark. I predicted the release of the long form birth certificate would result in 8% Democrats and 15% independents still doubting. The poll shows 7% Democrats; 12% independents with +/- 3.5%.
The biggest drop is amongst Republicans. Looks like the birthers are no longer part of the mainstream in the Republican party.
just got back from the FEMA cabin, there were 2 people there, all were asian except for the black man.
Most people polled simply weren’t following the issue closely- so they tended to assume that there was controversy simply because they got the drift of the issue, and they also assumed mistakenly that Obama had never produced any birth certificate. In other words, unlike hard birthers, they weren’t questioning the 2008-produced COLB — they simply didn’t know it existed. They thought all the hoopla was about a President who steadfastly refused to produce a birth certificate, and they had vague notions in their head about Obama being from Kenya or Indonesia or something or other.
After last week, there are two things that any American who was awake now knows:
1. Obama has produced a birth certificate showing that he was born in Hawaii.
2. Obama found & killed Osama Bin Laden.
Aside from the higher level of factual awareness that exists, there is also a new challenge to cognitive dissonance presented. Even hard-right Obama-haters have to admit that killing Bin Laden was a good thing, so therefore Obama did all right in this instant. (There may be folks on the left who are distressed at the notion that the SEAL team forgot to read Bin Laden his Miranda rights before shooting him, but the folks on the right are generally of the shoot first / ask questions later persuasion).
They’ve probably been targeted and individually vaporized using the HAARP! (Since we know that they used to exist – the birthers said so!) But you should still be careful Rich – make sure that you and Misha get a fresh layer of tinfoil on your hats before you go to the FEMA camp!
I wonder how many birthers will comment on this thread… 😀
Which has the effect of distilling the crazy – we should be getting pretty near 200 proof by now…
Which has the effect of distilling the crazy – we should be getting pretty near 200 proof by now…
[Sorry for the repeat, Doc – the first one got caught in moderation…]
richCares,
So by birther math you were saying that there were approximately 20,000 people there, all of whom were Asian, right?
I would have shot him if he farted.
I agree. I doubt more than 1 or 2 % of the public ever saw the COLB. Remember there was no press conference when it was released, nor was it shown on the media at the time. It simply went up on a web site that ranks around # 5,000 in the US
Was it a mistake not to have given it a big release back in 2008? Since Obama won, it’s hard to say it was. In fact, the b.c. was not an issue in the slightest during the campaign. The birthers really only got going after the election.
Fools! The FEMA camps are just being used to feed anti-government types to hungry aliens. They won’t touch Birthers. They cause indigestion.
I tend to believe tha the number has not changed quite this much – what’s changed is how politically and socially palatable it is to be a birther right now. Note that some of the Republicans that were dog-whistle birthers before (“Well, I don’t KNOW, but I take him at his word…”) are now simply saying he showed it, it’s over. It’s less of a political advantage now.
I take this as similar to some race-based issues – people don’t come out and say to the news that they’re against, for example, interracial marriage, but when the poll is anonymous, the numbers are far higher (particularly in some parts of the country).
With birtherism, I think they are temporarily cowed, however, once the Bin Laden/long form stuff fades into the past a little, they will come back and push the school records issue, and some will start pushing the Vattel issue a little more boldly and again force Republicans to make a statement on the issue.
The same poll when it was at it’s height of obsurdity a few weeks ago found only 5% fewer people thought Chump was born in the US. So the poll is fundamentally flawed in the first place.
You could probably insert just about anyones name in there and still the the same sorts of numbers.
Something nobody talks about.
at least Fred capitalized Chump…..
Please unmoderate me…..if you look at my posts, I’ve only did one thing that was inappropriate……I asked if one of these idiots would like to meet me personally to discuss things…come one Doc!…..let me back in……Im a nice, intelligent guy…Peace.
Hey..Im back….
Even granting your point (which I agree with) there is value to comparing the poll with the results of the same questions a year ago – and by that measure these are bleak results for the birthers. The fraction of birthers amongst conservative Republicans flew (well, not so much ‘flew’ as ‘plummeted’…) to under half its previous value (35% to 16%). This is really bad news for the birthers – these are people who are unlikely to be giving up their anti-Obama confirmation bias, but are apparently willing to give up on the birthers… Even worse news is that the number of people who believed that there was ‘solid evidence’ didn’t so much ‘plummet’ as it ‘cratered’ – going from 9% to 1% (people with a ‘suspicion’ went from 10% to 8%). I’d love to see the cross-tabs for this poll… (one note – the number of people with ‘no opinion’ on where President Obama was born was 19% in both polls. I would have expected this number to decrease – especially in the immediate aftermath of releasing the LFBC…)
Be civil, don’t provoke arguments for fun, and don’t pretend to be multiple people (goodgravy, heron, hello, mrnopants, fancypants) and you can stay.
Great news.
I would point to the remarks of Jonathan Kay in Salon.com who said:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/30/conspiracy_theories_truther_birther
“Even hard-right Obama-haters have to admit that killing Bin Laden was a good thing, so therefore Obama did all right in this instant.”
If we assume that Obama is not President and the de facto officer principle does not apply, then:
– when Obama is declared to be not President all his actions (laws, etc) have to be reversed,
– this includes the government having to raise Osama bin Laden from the dead (‘cuz Obama didn’t have the authority to have him killed).
Or am I just carrying this to its illogical conclusion?
Don’t worry about the missing birthers. There are plenty of Osama deathers to take their place. The Guardian published a whole raft of Obama/Osama conspiracy theories:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/05/osama-bin-laden-conspiracy-theories
It includes the birther-deather theory:
“Barack Obama timed the announcement so news of Bin Laden’s death would nudge Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice off the air to punish the entrepreneur for his impudent birth certificate questions.”
I think that the few who are left are getting louder to try to compensate – here’s a triple feature: The latest steaming pile from dr k(H)ate which includes a link to Pam Geller’s latest WND article (the number of errors of fact in this short article is staggering… as is the number of professional affiliations she claims for her ‘investigator’ – I wonder how many of them are made up… I’m guessing: all of them) and the first comment (also from the Harridan of Hate herself) which has an interview with Susan Daniels – I don’t know if she drank the kool-aid or if she’s running a con, but she’s spewing pure birther nonsense (if you’re interested in the source of the SS# meme you should listen to Ms Daniel’s drivel).
http://drkatesview.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/amending-the-constitution-by-fiat/
Great Googly Moogly!
Have literally millions of birthers been rounded up and moved to FEMA camps? Have they been murdered and buried en masse at sea?
Keep a good thought…
The only place you’re going to find birthers these days is at the local Klan meeting hall
Don’t worry. Psychosis will always out.
Careful – #2 is NOT even factored into this poll’s results.
Therefore, this “bump” can soley be attributed to how he handed your point #1.
Even though it goes to May 1st, these calls likely took place before even the WHCD…so that additional effect of boldly mocking the birther issue & Trump doesn’t factor into the sea change of opinion being expressed.
I can only imagine what a current poll of this nature asked today would show…
Tarrant, I think you made some very important points that all should keep in mind about what polls tend to reflect. Some of these folks might have been “genuinely confused” or “gullible”…sure.. but I think a greater amount simply realize it is no longer safe to pander to this particular issue without looking like a total fool or worse.
In terms of the points in your last paragraph – I agree that some of them are only temporarily cowed (those that didn’t initially react by just screaming the crazy even louder , as Slarti pointed out) and will eventually recover and try to push those other points you mentioned.
However, I think a threshold for tolerance of any of those tactics in the mainstream has been now crossed. We’ve already seen that cries for release of his academic records smacks of much more open bigotry on display and is receiving very little tolerance as a meme, (outside of perhaps FOX News…and even they probably realize its a loser issue to push by now). The Vattel nonsense won’t gain any mainstream traction either. They will try the Indonesia BS angle…but I don’t think they’ll be able to get far with that fib either.
I’m sure the hard core bigots will go through another period of trying to throw anything against the wall to see if it will stick. I’ve always had a sinking feeling that when all else fails, they’ll fall back to utterly faith-based smears, where they don’t even have to pretend to worry about supporting with “evidence” at all – because they’ll target those fundamentally predisposed to taking such matters based on gut faith alone.
This leaves them with two main insideous themes in this category – the “stealth Muslim” smear and the End-Times “AntiChrist” angle…
I think the dumbest of the them will still be proud birthers.
But sometimes they’re so dumb, they do things that are against their own interests.
For example, everyone sane knows the chemtrails are there to keep the reptilians out.
LMAO!
I am writing from the International Jewish Conspiracy™ subterranean command centers, in Jerusalem and NYC. I can confirm our plans are playing out exactly as we calculated.
Muwahahahahahhahahahahahah
I suspect that farting of a kind did occur but was merely a brief precursor to other more intense bowel motions on seeing the seals coming through the doors and windows.
I think birtherism was the sole manner for expressing racial contempt in a politically correct form.
Already socially banned from using “the N word”, they pointed out differences not of skin color, but by suggesting he was from Kenya.
(as if white people are never born in Kenya or McCain looks Panamanian.)
Now, some of the less extreme birthers will have a problem.
They can’t call him Kenyan because the LFBC has quieted that myth and they can’t call him Muslim because he killed OBL.
Saying he’s “pal’ing around with terrorists” just won’t work any longer.
So I’m betting that there will be some new war cry or issue they focus on other than Kenya or Islam.
I figure in a few months, Obama will suddenly become Chinese. 😉
> So I’m betting that there will be some new war cry or issue they focus on other than Kenya or Islam.
We still have the “Chicago thug” angle and the “Marxist” angle. 😉
> So I’m betting that there will be some new war cry or issue they focus on other than Kenya or Islam.<
I believe it's the Osama photo issue – he's not dead and won't believe he is until the photos are released.
Something to remember about Birfoon numbers and why the GOP continued/continues to court them even when demonstrably insane.
We already have a strong and demonstrable sense that the Birther demographic tends to the older/retired, the right (politically), lower educational achievement, Caucasian.
Not exclusive but strong verifiable elements, this tends to a demographic that gets its news from Talk Show Radio and Fox as well as email circulars (spam in the real world) as well as a tight circle of self-referring and very moderated and exclusionary blogs and web sites.
The problem is these people WILL reliably and consistently vote their spleen and bile and it will ALWAYS be a GOP’er, come what may.
Due to this nature, their impact and effect, particularly in close elections, is disproportionate to their raw numbers. If 75% turn out as opposed to say 40% general voters, they can have a significant effect in winner takes all elections.
yes right, obama’s poll ratings dropping like a rock, they disappearing all right….more lies by the deathers
more disinformation from BO
http://www.thepostemail.com/2011/05/05/is-the-lack-of-an-embossed-seal-the-key/
Doc C., I had left this forum but since you gave your “I told you so”, let me give mine. I had argued that Obama coming out forcefully with the original long form birth certificate and making a definitive statement on the issue would reduce the doubt in the population significantly.
I think I have been proven correct. I was thinking though about the people with the “Don’t know” position. I was surprised that the number of republicans dropped so sharply. Note also the number of independents dropped sharply.
This is especially beneficial to Obama since he’ll need the independents to win reelection.
Bob
You were certainly correct.
What is interesting, and perhaps telling, is that I have seen no change in birther comments on online forums nor in the content of the birther blogs. I’m still waiting for WorldNetDaily’s “Born in the USA” article.
I would be very surprised to see any continued pandering to the birthers by the GOP.
I’d be surprised, as Dr. C said, to see any continued pandering to birthers by the GOP or any of its top Presidential candidates. I have actually advocated a conspiracy theory of my own: that the short-lived “candidacy” of Donald Trump was a targeted vehicle intended to personify, then discredit, the birther cause, thus “cleansing” the real GOP candidates from having to show any allegiance to the conspiracy theory. In my opinion, this process required deliberate planning for Trump to be humiliated as much as possible, and this culminated in the White House Correspondents’ dinner debacle.
On that point, I’ll give you credit.
I on the other hand was extremely doubtful it would have any meaningful effect… but that poll already showing a “slashed in half” number supports what you said would happen and NOT what I thought would result. I’m happy to be proved wrong on these results.
Plus – keep in mind this new poll was STILL taken BEFORE the WHCD and killing of OBL… two additional events that I would expect could even further reduce those kinds of numbers in a poll survey… so this “effect” could get even bigger in subsequent polls.
However, even though I’m very surprised and encouraged by the drastric sea-change results after the LFBC release, I reserve some skepticism on what those poll results actually reflect has changed.
See Tarrant’s post of May 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm, which covers the concerns and skepticism that I still have and why.
Bottom line, my remaining concern is wondering how much of those changed responses reflect people that simply wanted more “convincing” and are now satisfied and how many are really just “laying low” on what they’ll say to pollsters at the moment, because they realize birtherism is no longer a “socially acceptible” answer…
> I’m happy to be proved wrong on these results.
I think it depends on what inferences you draw from the poll answers.
As I’ve said numerous times, the number of “don’t know” or “maybe not born in the US” has always been meaningless because there is no way to deduce for how many of these people it would play a role in their voting decision.
Birfers have always claimed the numbers mean “all these people are birthers”, inferring they would all not vote for Obama because of their “don’t know”. We’ve always known this to be false.
Besides, I actually am not surprised about the numbers. In fact, I’m surprised the “birther numbers” (wrong label, but well…) didn’t drop more.
As I’ve said, many people likely have replied “don’t know” or “maybe not born in the US” simply because they had no idea – they never bothered to look (and this includes those who didn’t have “doubts” in the birfer sense but simply never looked up his birthplace on Wikipedia). Just like I have not the faintest idea where Shakira was born, or Schwarzenegger (knowing he’s Austrian doesn’t help me here).
So this lot of people who maybe for the first time got in touch with the issue will have turned from “don’t know” to “Hawaii” and from “maybe born outside the US” to “probably born in the US”.
Be that how it may, the one thing that remains is that the birfers cannot claim “significant numbers” of people believe their crap.
(Don’t forget it won’t discourage a birther to hear “only 3% of the people believe your stuff” because they know how many millions that is and still dream that a couple million people marching to DC will “unseat the regime”…)
The hardest of the hard core birthers have always placed more emphasis on the two-American citizen parent theory (myth) of natural born citizenship rather than the birthplace theory.
It will be interesting to see if there is a significant switch of those suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome away from birthplace (as reflected in the poll’s questions) to the two-citizen parents ideology.
I believe that a large percentage of those people who were endorsing birtherism prior to the “long form” release were doing it as a convenient way to upset supporters of the President. Accordingly, my prediction would be that the right-wing media will now work to present a new irrational irritant, other than claiming that the President is ineligible, and that many former marginal “birthers” will defect to this new, non-eligibility-related, conspiracy theory or factual dispute.
Does “bin Laden has been dead for years” qualify for this new conspiracy?
Yes, and Bush had him on ice but somehow forgot to trot him out before leaving office.
Maybe Bush was saving him for the next Republican president, but, oops, McCain lost. And now he can’t say anything because it would make him look even more stupid than he is. But enough with the birfer talk. 😉
I’m just waiting how long until birfers will claim Al Quaeda is on Obama’s side and therefore confirms Osama just having been killed…
to no one’s surprise, the real americans™ in the land of the freep have preempted you:
Coming soon! Watch for my new book, “Hooters – how Hillary, Obama, Osama & Trump stole your freedom.” Some of the shocking revelations:
After a birther, masquerading as a Hillary campaign supporter during the 2008 campaign, circulated a forged letter claiming that Obama was not eligible to be president, Obama warned Hillary that, according to his analysis of the Constitution and the Doctrine of Original Intent, women cannot be president (a lie, of course), but if she would sabotage her own campaign, he promised he wouldn’t expose her and she could have her pick of jobs in his administration. She grudgingly accepted the offer.
Trump is working for Obama. Realizing he needed something to revive his approval ratings and squelch the meaningless but nagging birther issue, Obama worked out a win-win-win-win deal with Trump. If Trump would barnstorm the country demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate, Obama promised to quash a pending IRS audit of Trump’s taxes, while Trump would get a boost in his TV ratings and the media uproar would outrage and enliven Obama’s base and inflate the birther balloon, which Obama would then deflate by magnanimously releasing the birth certificate.
Obama is working for Osama. As part of his evil quest to rule the world, Osama bin Ladin has had his agents scouring the world for information that could be used against world leaders. He hit the jackpot in London, where one of his spies obtained evidence from British colonial records that Barack Obama Senior was an employee of the British government, with diplomatic immunity, at the time of Obama Junior’s birth in Hawaii, thus Junior is ineligible to be president. Osama used the information to blackmail the president. The person killed in the recent raid in Pakistan was actually Osama’s hated twin brother Omama.
It was the right call.
Ah, satire.
Gregg Jackson: Still a birther:
http://greggjackson.com/blog/?p=576
As I told him in the comments section, if he has proof it was forged he should contact the authorities.
There’s more:
Breaking news: Word is that President Obama will be appearing in Arizona next week to announce that, in behalf of a grateful nation, and in recognition of Donald Trump’s selfless service in forcing the handover of Obama’s birth certificate, Obama will be asking Congress to adopt legislation granting Trump naming rights to the Grand Canyon, henceforth to be known as “Trump Trough.”
Good enough, right? Unfortunately, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Here’s the nasty part: We have reliable evidence that Obama and Trump made a secret deal that if the name change went through, Trump would help finance the startup of a new political party, to be known as “Birthers for Jesus” (aka “The Bejesus”), with the goal of siphoning off votes from the Republicans in the 2012 election. They have tentatively put together a ticket combining the religious right’s Mike Huckabee, for President, and birther queen Orly Taitz, for Vice President, to be marketed as the “HOT Ticket” (for Huckabee-Orly-Taitz, get it?).
“But wait,” you say, “Taitz was born in Moldavia, she’s not a US Citizen!” Actually, Taitz has produced evidence that her Moldavian birth certificate is a forgery. Apparently, a team of forensic experts examined the document and found her mother’s race listed as “African,” which Taitz has previously ruled is not a valid racial designation. Consequently, an exhaustive search was conducted yesterday afternoon in her computer and it was determined that she was actually born in Disney World, Florida, and her parents are Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Now that we’ve exposed this nefarious plot, we expect they’ll deny the whole damn thing. But, since we know they’re all a bunch of liars, that’ll just prove that’s what they were planning on doing. So, once the news gets out about this, I expect the country will be thanking us for our valuable service. You heard it here first. God bless America!
LMAO!
Favorite parts:
– Trump Trough, “The Bejesus”, “HOT Ticket” and of course…involving Snow White & The Seven Dwarves. 😉
> where one of his spies obtained evidence from British colonial records that Barack Obama Senior was an employee of the British government, with diplomatic immunity, at the time of Obama Junior’s birth in Hawaii, thus Junior is ineligible to be president
Hey, don’t give the fools any more ideas. Watch out, give it two weeks and they’ll tout this as “fact”…
Holy bejesus, Magic! Only chance now may be to scrub what’s here and hack Google cache. Oh for the simple days of Catch 22. Any advice is welcome.
I’ll tell Soros when he comes to dinner tonight.