By now, many of you have seen the WaPo headline about "Obama's Muslim Problem." Chris is getting his information secondhand; for the nitty-gritty, you have to go straight to the source, Pew Research. This is one toolbar bookmark I'm not thinking about deleting, even though the news from there can be as depressing as Gallup's. Their polls are slower in coming, but more detailed - and insightful.
According to Pew, "A substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined."
This kind of news tends to affirm one's belief that a disturbing percentage of the American Electorate are either over-the-top crazy or too stupid to go to the bathroom by themselves. There is, however, a bit of hope to be found in the report.
Here's the gist of the intro. Note that the survey was conducted before Big O's comments on Cordoba House, so we might get different results if the survey were conducted today.
A new national survey by the Pew Research Center finds that nearly one-in-five Americans (18%) now say Obama is a Muslim, up from 11% in March 2009. Only about one-third of adults (34%) say Obama is a Christian, down sharply from 48% in 2009. Fully 43% say they do not know what Obama’s religion is. The survey was completed in early August, before Obama’s recent comments about the proposed construction of a mosque near the site of the former World Trade Center.
Not surprisingly, the percentage of Republicans who hold a belief that Obama is a Muslim is considerably higher:
Roughly a third of conservative Republicans (34%) say Obama is a Muslim, as do 30% of those who disapprove of Obama’s job performance.
Only a third? Maybe they're getting smarter, or some of them have just died off recently.
The belief that Obama is a Muslim has increased most sharply among Republicans (up 14 points since 2009), especially conservative Republicans (up 16 points).
Well, maybe not.
There is, however, some surprisingly good news to be found a little farther down:
Beliefs about Obama’s religion are closely linked to political judgments about him. Those who say he is a Muslim overwhelmingly disapprove of his job performance, while a majority of those who think he is a Christian approve of the job Obama is doing. Those who are unsure about Obama’s religion are about evenly divided in their views of his performance.
So there you have it, folks! If you believe Obama is a Christian, you think he's doing a good job. If you think he's a Muslim, you don't. That would suggest the solution to Obama's abysmal approval ratings is pretty simple: just bring him to Jesus. Let's have a few shots of him with Michelle and the girls, giving us some sound bites on the steps of the Washington National Cathedral. Let's have him start his weekly radio and Internet addresses by reading from the Bible. We'll turn 40% to 60% in no time, and the Dems can win another landslide in November.