I know that most Americans don’t pay attention to the primaries, but really. Given all the brouhaha over then Sen. Barack Obama’s association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, how can it be that in a matter of weeks we’ve gone from 1-in-5 Americans thinking the President is Muslim to 1-in-4?
That’s the latest polling data from TIME; only 1-in-2 think the President is Christian. The others don’t know.
But it gets worse:
Twenty-eight percent of voters do not believe Muslims should be eligible to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Nearly one-third of the country thinks adherents of Islam should be barred from running for President…
As far as the manufactured controversy that has driven these numbers, right-wing pundits and Republican Presidential candidates should be glowing: 3-in-5 Americans oppose the construction of the Park51/Cordoba House. Note that TIME uses the FOX moniker, “Ground Zero Mosque” in its headline title for the web page but not in the story. Link bait, that.
TIME doesn’t bother to link to the polling questions or tell us anything about the margin of error, just this: “The poll, conducted by Abt SRBI, surveyed 1,002 adults — 89% of whom identified themselves as likely voters — on Aug. 16-17.”
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com