I wouldn't meet the criteria of "conservative," but if a pollster asked me such a silly-ass question, I'd also respond "Oh yeah, definitely the anti-Christ. Without a doubt."

Of course if the follow-up involved where Obama was born, I'd respond "third planet in Epsilon-Boötes." But that's just me.

If the pollster missed the sarcastic tone in my voice, well...

Isn't the 911 question a bit loaded though? I had thought that the White House was warned that an attack was imminent, and even that planes might be involved? If this is true, then technically, the Bush White house was warned, but they chose to not address those warnings.

While I think it's preposterous to believe that Bush knew exactly what was going to happen, and allowed it to happen, I do believe they knew something was going to happen, and they didn't take those threats seriously enough.

Pineys!

I'd be more interested in comparing the % of people who think Obama is the anti-Christ to those who think he is the second coming of Jesus himself; seems like a closer analogy.

I’m concerned about the wide prevalence of the Birther – Truther [right and left are the same] meme and the suggestion that large segments of both the right and the left are crazy. The Obama Birther myth has been widely debunked, and so have the Truther conspiracies about CIA involvement, etc.

However, reporting on the “Truther” prevalence fails to mention widespread publicity on the pre-9/11 memos and intelligence information that was “discounted by the Bush White House (“Bin Laden determined to strike in the US,” etc.). Is it possible that inelegantly written survey questions may lead some respondents to answer “George W. Bush had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks,” based on that assumption [of intelligence reports ignored], without actually buying into the Truther nonsense about a U.S. government plan?

This is probably a question for Nate Silver or someone with like experience, but it bothers me that we may be classifying a whole group of folks as “Truthers,” who don’t subscribe to the tenets of that cult. Please don’t continue to contribute to the “he said – she said-ification” of our discourse with what are potentially false equivalencies without further inquiry and informed research.

You really need to put these numbers in context: New Jersey is hardly a conservative bastion, which suggests conservatives as a group in the Garden State are likely to be among the hardest of the hard core.

I'm guessing that a disproportionate number of them (compared to a more homogeneously conservative state like, say, Texas) are Christian anti-abortion fanatics -- a demo somewhat prone to seeing the Anti-Christ lurking around every corner.

Also, the poll was of likely voters in this fall's NJ gubernatorial race, and we all know how jazzed up the Republican base is right now.

Bottom line: According to the poll, only 8% of the entire sample thought Obama was the Anti-Christ.

Which is bad, but frankly not as wacky as the 19% who thought George Bush had advance knowledge of 9/11. Anyone who saw the video of him sitting in that classroom in Florida, staring vacantly into space, paralyzed with fear, should know how absurd that particular conspiracy theory is.

But where do they stand on the "Jersey Devil", urban legend, or the real deal?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil

bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

republicans are soooo stupid haha

And this birther truther comparisson is 100% bullshit.

Condi rice herself testified saying they recieved a memo prior to the attacks that said "bin laden determined to strike in US"

"On the other side of the political spectrum, there's some significant 9/11 Trutherism among Dem voters. We've got 32% of Jersey Democrats who say that George W. Bush had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks."

I know, that's SO crazy. I mean, who could ever think that? You'd have to be crazy to think the president responded to a daily brief titled "bin Laden determined to strike within US" with a snide "OK, you've covered your ass".

yes, just as crazy. DUH.

Um, he DID have advanced knowledge. That is common knowledge, the CIA reported to Rice about it. They knew an attack was imminent. I'd probably answer "yes" to that wording as well. That DOESN'T make them Truthers. That just makes it a poorly worded poll question.

That's like comparing an apple orchard to a grain of salt. Sure they're both food but c'mon...

Eric, I cannot believe u wasted actually web page space with this poll nonense.

The 9/11 question lumps in two very different groups of people - the liberals who think that Bush ignored all the warning signs (as pointed out in the comments above), and the hard-core crazies on both sides (but more on the far right) who think that the CIA actually demolished the buildings with explosives and that no plane crashed into the Pentagon. The latter are equivalent to Birthers, the former are not.

SO if Obama is the Anti Christ
and
Obama was born in Kenya

Does that make Kenya Hell?

The anti-Christ question, not certain how you can spin that - Do you believe BHO is the anti-Christ - yes, no or maybe. But, I do not believe that answering yes to a question posed as do you believe the administration had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks necessarily makes you a truther. As I understand things (and I could be wrong), the truthers not only think there was advance knowledge, they think it was kept quiet for the express purpose of allowing the attacks to take place so that all manner of craziness could occur. I have no problem with answering yes, the administration had some advance knowledge and didn't act on it. I think they just didn't focus on the threat or believe it was real -- i.e. they were basically incompetents masquerading as Real Americans Keeping the Country Safe because keeping the country safe, pre 9/11, was a campaign slogan with little meat behind it. Having some facts and intentionally not acting on them is quite the different thing.

I have to wonder how many NJ Republicans thought Bill Clinton was the anti-Christ. Seriously, people who believe in the anti-Christ are utter morons and are likely to believe that any scary person is the anti-Christ.

Sorry, all, I despair. This is a sad commentary on the state of the American population. The mass insanity I thought was only in the deep South of my birth seems to have spread.

This birther, antichrist etc. stuff should not be part of educated adult conversation and devoting front page coverage to it is just feeding the beast.

Anything less than 60% is just a fringe element.

I thought Truther's believed the last administration planned and/or were directly involved in the 9/11 attacks?

The Truther movement includes many, many professionals who have professional interest in an independent investigation. For example, firefighters, architects, and builders want a better, more convincing explanation of why WTC Building 7 fell down, as it is still the only steel-frame high-rise to collapse as a result of fire. That is important information for their livelihoods. Wanting specific answers does not make them equivalent to those who believe a majority of the country just elected the antiChrist to lead us.

Considerably more than a third don't believe in evolution, don't believe in global warming and generally discount science. So, being that a large percentage are demonstrably ignorant, these other beliefs of the GOP should not shock anyone. When you are under educated, gullible, easily led, aren't capable of critical thinking, and quite often bigoted, you are at a severe disadvantage when it comes to discerning truth.

Oh, I weep for my beloved New Jersey. What has happened to this once very Dem state?

Lest we forget, MANY kooks were certain that Bill Clinton was the anti-christ. That should tell us something about that "school of thought".
What's truly sad is the amount of pure hate for Obama on the right. Pitiful!

Weep also for our beloved United States while you are at it. Could someone remind me, what was the official explanation for the collapse of Building 7 again? And the 55 minutes between the WTC hit by a hijacked jet and Donald Rumsfeld sitting at his desk allegedly unaware when the Pentagon got hit! I have my doubts, so I guess I balance one birther-antichrister waiting for the rapture.

Just so you don't loose any more sleep over the "mysterious" collapse of a steel frame building in a fire. THE FIRE BEGAN AS AN EXPLOSION OF JET FUEL, A VERY LARGE AMOUNT OF JET FUEL AS THE PLANE WAS FLYING TO CALIFORNIA. JET FUEL BURNS AT A VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE, BURNING THE INSULATION OFF THE STEEL BEAMS AND THEN MELTING AND WEAKENING THE STEEL TO THE POINT OF COLLAPSE. There that wasn't so scary after all was it.

Please do not confuse idiots with Republicans. There are idiot Republicans and idiot Democrats. I don't know what the idiot Democrats believe in as strongly as the idiot Republicans believe in the AntiChrist, but I am sure there is something.
Some day the Democrats will overreach and the Republicans wil come back into power. Let's at least work on getting people educated so the future of our children is in the hands of the literate, hey?

Well, it actually makes sense if you think about it!

Jess
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