70% of white southerners believe Obama was not born in the U.S.

[nevergiveup]

Richard Wolffe on Countdown gave this stat from a new poll. Did anyone else see this. Maybe I didn't hear him correctly? I realize that racism is rampant in the South but I still find this number astonishing.

[RoyGBiv]

1. What poll?

What was the question on the poll?

[nevergiveup]

8. It was a poll released today

showing the percentage of Americans buying into the Birther conspiracy theory.

[RoyGBiv]

10. What poll?

Who did it? What's the question asked? What's the sampling size?

[nsd]

19. Daily Kos / Research 2000

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/31/760087/-Birthers-are-mostly-Republican-and-Southern

[Honeycombe8]

30. That poll says that 23% of southerners don't believe Obama was born in the US. Not 70%. nt

[ShadowLiberal]

38. The 70% figure counts undecided & no's as the same thing, and does a bit of guess work

It's based largely on Daily Kos' poll, but since it didn't have breakdown by race in region.

I forget which it was, they either made the assumption that most minorities didn't believe the birther rumor and would say yes, or they took the numbers by race from some other poll.

Either way though, based on minorities having a near unanimous 'yes' opinion in the poll, and what percentage of southerns are white, black, etc, they concluded that white southerners would have to be strongly believing in the birther rumor, answering either no or undecided in the daily kos poll.

If you assume every minority person in the south doesn't believe the birther rumors then 75% of white southerners would have to believe it for the south's numbers to come out as they did.

[RollWithIt]

42. After carefully looking at the poll, I have to say, it's complete bullshit

I'm not even from the South and after reading it three times I view it as more of an attempt to classify a region than anything else.

[Honeycombe8]

43. No. The undecideds and the NOs add up to 50-something %. nt

[ShadowLiberal]

45. Among ALL southern votes of ALL races yes

Like I said, the 70% figure is someone's guesswork since the poll didn't break the region numbers down by race. It makes the assumption that most of the no and undecided votes from the south were white.

[movonne]

14. Not Americans the repugs are the one's that believe this shit...and

I think it said that 90% of the dems believe he was born in America...and the Ind. voted (I can't remember the exact percentages) but were very high ... so it is just the repugs and most from the South...

[Hosnon]

2. Racism is no less rampant anywhere else. Check out a map of political party affiliation. nt.

[Bicoastal]

3. Yes, but there are now more Republicans in the South than anywhere else...

so...well, you know...

[Hosnon]

4. Then the correct correlation should be between Republicans and their living

in this South.

Not between racists and their living in the South.

[Bicoastal]

12. Well, not all birthers are racist...

though all racists are probably birthers.

[Hosnon]

13. Actually, I see a 1:1 ratio between the two. nt.

[WCGreen]

17. So you are sayin'....

If you voted for the likes of Senator Vitter, you might be a Racist...

[dragonlady]

5. It's called wishful thinking

From the dailyKos-sponsored survey: 23 percent of Southerners think he was not born in the US (11 percent nationally). But of all who say no, 69 percent are from the South.


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/31/760087/-Birthers-are-mostly-Republican-and-Southern

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/31/760258/-The-birth-of-a-regional-rump-party

[sandnsea]

6. They're the ones skewing favorabilities too

If you took the south out, Obama would have been at 80% for the last 6 months.

[dragonlady]

7. It's called wishful thinking

From the dailyKos-sponsored survey: 23 percent of Southerners think he was not born in the US (11 percent nationally). But of all who say no, 69 percent are from the South.


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/31/760087/-Birthers-are-mostly-Republican-and-Southern

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/31/760258/-The-birth-of-a-regional-rump-party

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. No it's the combination of people who believe he's not born here (around 40%) and "not sure" (30%)

http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2009/7/30/US/320

Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?

Yes 77
No 11
Not sure 12

Yes No Not sure
Dem 93 4 3
Rep 42 28 30
Ind 83 8 9

Northeast 93 4 3
South 47 23 30
Midwest 90 6 4
West 87 7 6

[boppers]

11. Not from what I saw.

The survey I saw did not ask about race.

It asked about party affiliation, and region.

Since the south is also the bible belt, and has high poverty rates, and poor education rates, assiming that this is about "white southerners" is a bit of a broad-brush attack, as other factors might be possible causes.

If it's a different survey, a link would be appreciated.

[quakerboy]

22. Lets look at some of the established numbers from the poll

23 % of southerners believe Obama was not born in the US. 97 % of AA's believe that he was born here. 87 % of Hispanics believe that he was born here. The 23 percent come from somewhere. IF the south were representative of the us demographically, it would be 13% AA and 15% Hispanic, 71% white.

I get a number closer to 30% of white southerners believe Obama was not born in the US. Not 70%, but still damn horrific.

[indepat]

37. That racism is still alive and well among all too many "white southerners"

is a no-brainer, albeit a goodly number of these are both Jesus-professing Christians and more closeted than their earlier-day god-fearing reichous brethrens. :P

[bertman]

15. Proud to be in the 30%!!

[OHdem10]

16. It would be interesting to have an objective poll question or two.

Where is Hawaii?? Do people sometimes forget that H is a state??
Hawaii can seem like a far away place.

How many people understand the law? Have they concretely understood
that non-citizens who happen to be in the Us when the Mother
goes into labor --that baby is a citizen even if the parents are not???

Having read posts at RW Websites, I am reminded how careful
Pollsters need to be when questioning.

Sure there are some who are looking for and are willing to make
any excuse to be against Obama. Not that many.

Further more, many of these polls are set up so they question
Likely Voters. Republicans are much more likely to vote
than Democrats. This colors the picture also.

I question the wisdom of the Media giving this subject attention.
Are we suppose to put Obama out of office to pacify them????
Why bother spending Media time and energy. Is there an ulterior
motive????

[krispos42]

18. Not surpised at all

Republicans especially have that authoritian framework that is very fact-resistant. They are still in denial about Reagan, for example. "Oh, Reagan cut taxes!" and other delusions. "Reagan's military spending brought down Russia." "Reagan never called himself a citizen of the world."

[and-justice-for-all]

20. They can believe whatever they want...

they are dead wrong nonetheless...

[anonymous171]

21. The Deep South is still pretty racist. nt

[PBS Poll-435]

23. NFS nt

:)

[suzie]

27. Funny, I've heard that about Boston.

But I missed the numbers of DU threads complaining about the racism in Boston that correlated with the Gates arrest.

[pecwae]

34. That's because no

racism or bigotry exists anywhere else on earth except the US South.

[johnaries]

24. That's funny. 100% of the white southerners I polled at work today

think birthers are NUTS!

Sorry, as a White Southerner I don't buy it. It's BS.

[Rebellious Republican]

28. Oh vey, what a Schlameil. Flame bait post! N/T

:argh:

[quickesst]

31. Hush now...

You'll upset the apple cart that is the whole-hearted belief by many "liberals" here that the south embodies everything they believe as written by the Holy Book of Southern Stereotypes. Witness how many "good" liberals were willing to throw millions of us under the bus during the Texas secession bullshit, and you realize that being from the south trumps being a democrat/liberal any day of the week. I come to DU for the even-handed, who are a daily source of news and intelligent opinion. The rest I avoid or tolerate in order to do so. Thanks.
quickesst

[pecwae]

33. + many!

"you realize that being from the south trumps being a democrat/liberal any day of the week" and is an absolute guarantee you'll be labeled a racist bigot here.

[Eryemil]

35. Personal experience is useless as any form of proof. n|t

[Sheltiemama]

39. I don't buy it, either.

And I'm a white Southerner, too.

[Number23]

40. "Sorry, as a White Southerner I don't buy it."

I don't either. And I'm a black (former) Southerner.

[Stuckinthebush]

44. Same here, johnaries

As a deep South caucasian I've had the opportunity to informally poll a number of coworkers and neighbors. All find the birther crap to be....crap.

[TexasObserver]

25. The same group believes Jesus rode dinosaurs.

[Senator]

26. Yes, but 92% of those believe Hawaii is a fictional place.

Created by Hollywood liberal Jack Lord, just to confuse them about "what in the hell color those people are anyway?"

--

[depakid]

29. Considering the nature of the media monopoly in the region- that's no surprise

Hate radio- to the exclusion of everything else 24/7 is gonna do things like that, Maybe once health care reform is gutted- and the rest of the administration's agenda is scuttled, they'll finally understand the need to divest and re-regulate.

[Syntheto]

32. 70% of White Southerners polled...

...if you polled 100 White inmates in some Federal prison, for example, you might get 70 of them to jump...

...if you polled 100 unemployed White Southerners, you might get 70 of them to jump...

...if you polled 100 White University Professors, lawyers, doctors or other professionals, I doubt seriously if you would get 70 of them to jump...

These people who keep denigrating White Southern people with bogus polling like this disgust me... the only thing the article didn't mention was the racial epithet 'redneck' that keeps popping up on DU.

[Beacool]

36. Who the hell did they poll?????

That sounds like a very improbable number.

:crazy:

[cwydro]

41. Yawn.

Another south bashing thread.

Make you feel good?

[npk]

46. Wow flamebait thread about white southerners still open

Can't say that I am surprised. I wonder what would happen if just a few words in that title were changed. Oh never mind.

Anyway as far as the poll I have no doubt that the south is full of many people that are white and happen to believe that the President of the United States is not a citizen. I also believe there are a good number of people located all over the country who believe this too. I am sure if you did enough studies you would find that most of these people are white and vote Republican. I am sure if you further broke the results down you would find that many of these people are white, republican, poor and uneducated. And what does this have to do with white people in the south, nothing really. Except just to demonstrate how the south is viewed as mostly a wasteland of hate and bigotry, by people who almost always have never even been to the south.

[mkultra]

47. 72% of people who quote statistics are full of shit.

[aaaaaa5a]

48. I thought it was excellent commentary

I think it's time people were more honest about what's going on. Old Southern whites are more likely to be prejudiced and have back-wards views when it comes to this country then any other demographic group. In the history of American there is no greater force of evil than a southern while male.


It's a fact. Old southern whites without a college education who attend church regularly are the base of the GOP. Rural, southern uneducated whites are disproportionately more ignorant than almost any other demographic group in our society.



The results didn't suprise me at all.

[cwydro]

50. Stereotype much?

What nonsense.

[aaaaaa5a]

58. No, I don't stereotype much, I just don't ignore the pink elephant in the room. NT

[Rebubula]

52. Ok, then....

...that was an ignorant post.

Please show me where you get these 'facts'. In fact, if what you say is true about southern, uneducated whites being more ignorant that almost any other demographic - I would be interested in what other groups are MORE ignorant and how the study was conducted.

Statements without tangible and reproducible methods of gaining the information are simply opinions and we all know what opinions are like.

[aaaaaa5a]

59. You raise a good point....

there may not be a demographic group more ignorant than uneducated rural southern whites. I stand corrected.

[suzie]

55. When I worked in retail, I was very careful when my Old Northern

White friends walked in the store, because they would inevitably make racist comments that I would never expect from Old Southern Whites.

Same with my Old White Northern neighbors who are always coming up with some racist-tinged question.

Somehow I'd consider them more evil than the Old Southern White Males that I know who put up the money to open an office for Obama, staffed it, made calls, registered voters, drove in parades, etc., etc., to get a black guy elected.

But, a young friend of mine who now lives in Chicago but was home recently to visit her evil Old Southern White parents, stated that racism is still alive and well in the North, and just as insidious as in the South. A major difference being that Northerners spend most of their time pointing to the South as the only place that racism exists.

[aaaaaa5a]

60. Good point....

Nobody is saying "Northerners" are perfect people, it's quite the opposite. All demographic groups have good and bad. But if you were to compare the two groups historically in this country, there is no comparison.



White, rural, Southerners disproportionately brought this country....


1) The Civil War.... They nearly destroyed the country. Objectively, a confederate soldier, flag, etc. is the most Un-American symbol in the history of our country. By definition you can't be more anti-american than to be a confederate solider.


2)Jim Crow segregation, lynchings, rapes etc..... YES THERE WERE SEGREGATED AREAS IN THE NORTH. But to compare Massachusetts to Mississippi is intellectually dishonest, and everyone knows it.



3)In modern times the South (which became a GOP stronghold because Southern voters were against equal rights) was the power base which gave us George W. Bush. And that led to the Iraq war, hundreds of thousands of deaths, a huge national debt and the downturn of our economy. Science anyone?


YES... I could go on. But everyone gets the point. IMHO, this country is always far better off the further we get from the culture and philosophy of the rural, south.



Oh, by the way... the ridiculous birther claim is also a predominately southern movement. Again no surprise!

[suzie]

61. George Bush and all the Bushes are elite, Ivy Leaguers from the North.

Trying to blame the South for those Northern darlings is intellectually dishonest.

As is ignoring that great mass of red states in the Midwest and West--most of which were not settled by Southerners and which have voted for Republicans for as long as I can remember.

When I travel to the North, it always surprises me to eat in restaurants that are more segregated than the ones that we in the South ate in during the 1950s. But, I guess it's intellectually dishonest of me to have noticed.

[NoSheep]

49. That's very hard to believe...but I may be in the bluest part.

[tledford]

51. Yes, but "the South" is defined as Yoknapatawpha County, MS. eom

[BlooInBloo]

53. And water is wet.

[tomm2thumbs]

54. They also are unable to stop that clock in their VCRs from flashing

Yes, they still have VCRs

[GivePeaceAchance]

56. The solution is very simple more folks need to move to southern states change the south by changing

the perspective. There has to be a lot of job opportunities in the green industry in the solar industry there too. Is the South becomes more developed in industry, so alongside will the thinking with time. At least move their for 2012 that'd do it. The best way to make America more safe is large magrations south the north has the numbers dispese some of its population it's all about the math. Folks in Cali can at least afford to move a few folks from Cali to Nevada to put a little heat on certina senator from Nevada, maybe why not. :)

[question everything]

57. They probably do not know that Hawaii is a state

For that matter, I doubt they can name all 50 states and where they are on the map.

Or even to find out the U.S. on the globe.

[GivePeaceAchance]

62. The solution more northerners become southerners the numbers and the insanity dilutes...

The south doesn't have to be as it is it can change if people are willing to make the effort.

[Name removed]

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