Certain MSNBC hosts have been fixated over using the "birthers" to
discredit conservatives, highlighting a poll commissioned by the
far-left Daily Kos site which found a majority of Republicans (58
percent) either believe Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S. (28
percent) or are not sure he was (30 percent). Chris Matthews led
Friday's Hardball with the beliefs of the GOP's "lunatic fringe" and
"wack jobs," but where was MSNBC two years ago ranting about the
Democratic Party's "lunatic fringe" and "wack jobs" when a survey
discovered a bigger majority of Democrats (61 percent) think or are not
sure if President George W. Bush knew in advance of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks?
Washington Examiner columnist/blogger David Freddoso pointed out a
couple of hours earlier, during another MSNBC segment devoted to the
Daily Kos poll (his post [1] about his appearance), what Rasmussen Reports found. That poll released on May 4, 2007 determined [2]:
Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.
So, more than a third of Democrats believe the President of the
United States knew of a terrorist attack which would murder thousands
of Americans and did nothing to stop it. That's quite an indictment of
how a significant portion of that party thinks the absolute worst of
their nation.
Sadly, even some Republicans accept that lunacy. More from Rasmussen's summary:
Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view.
Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Young Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance....
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center