Why Are So Many Falling for Birtherism?

A new CNN poll finds that 27% of Americans still wonder whether the president was born in the United States.

A new CNN poll finds that 27% of Americans still wonder whether President was born in the United States.

No, that was not a typo. 11% of those surveyed responded that they were absolutely certain that the President was not born in the USA, another 16% stopped short of certainty, opting instead to go with the assertion that the President probably wasn't born in the States.

If CNN's numbers are even close to correct (the polls margin of error is +/- 3%), then we cannot simply write off the birthers as fringe lunatics. The figure is simply too large to ignore. A quarter of the country, that's 1 in four, is open to the idea that the President wasn't born in the United States. One in ten is certain of it. Perhaps most startling of all, only 42% said they totally believed that the President was born here. 29% of the theoretically uncrazy still stopped short of certainty, opting to say that they think the President was “probably” born here.

What does it say about how the American people feel about the men and women in power that so few express total belief that there is no conspiracy? This figure represents, to use Jimmy Carter's infamous phrase, something more than “a crisis of confidence” in not the President, not just the political system, but the whole American process of verifying reality.

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