It's well known that some percentage of Republicans believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim or was not born in the United States, or both.
The Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling has found out that some Republicans don't believe Barack Obama deserves credit for the death of terrorist Osama bin Laden.
In its poll taken in Ohio Sept. 7-9, PPP says it asked the following question:
Q15 Who do you think deserves more credit for the
killing of Osama bin Laden: Barack Obama or
Mitt Romney?
The answers from Republicans were:
Barack Obama................................................ 38%
Mitt Romney.................................................... 15%
Not sure .......................................................... 47%
The answers from Democrats were:
Barack Obama................................................ 86%
Mitt Romney.................................................... 1%
Not sure .......................................................... 13%
Among the likely explanations are the following:
First is that the respondents who answered yes (including the Democrats) were thinking George Bush, and were tricked by the question, shame on PPP.
Second, the respondents hated Obama so much that they would have answered Daffy Duck if that was the only alternative to Obama.
I asked Tom Jensen, director of the Public Policy Polling center in Raleigh, N.C., why the question was included. Here's what he told me, via e-mail:
The purpose of the question was to see if Republicans would be willing to give President Obama credit for any of his accomplishments. That’s why Romney was used since I think to most people it would be pretty obvious he had nothing to do with bin Laden’s killing. Given that only 38% of GOP voters said Obama deserved more credit than Romney the answer to the question about whether they’re willing to give him credit for anything appears to be for the most part no…
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