Less than half of Arkansans think Obama is a US citizen
A poll conducted by publicpolicypolling.com released today revealed that less than half of Arkansans think President Barack Obama is a citizen of the United States. Just 45% of those polled believe that Obama was born in the US, with 31% stating they believe he was not, and 24% answering “not sure.”
55% of the respondents also said that conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s vision for the country is better than Obama’s, in spite of the fact that of those same respondents, only 35% of them have a favorable opinion of Limbaugh, compared to 44% “unfavorable.”
Other numbers from the poll indicate that 56% of those polled disapprove of the job Obama is doing so far as President, with just 40% approving.
The poll was conducted via an Interactive Voice Response poll (IVR), a common automated polling system that employs an automated, recorded voice to call respondents who are asked to answer questions by punching telephone keys.
Dean Debnam of Public Policy Polling estimated that around 25,000 calls were made, and of those, 784 Arkansas voters from all over the state made up the results.
“The way (this type of) poll works is you get a lot of no-answers, some numbers that are disconnected,” Debnam said.
“We pull a sample of likely voters that have voted in similar elections, then do a random sample, and then do a telephone poll of those voters because you’re trying to get an approriate sample of Arkansans.”
The full results of the poll are available on publicpolicypolling.com, which of course prompted us to update our poll in the sidebar, ’cause you know, Fayetteville is in Arkansas too.
[Via Taegan Goddard's Political Wire]
[Photo by mountaineerpics via Flickr and Creative Commons 2.0]
Comments
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Doug Ward
August 25, 2009
I think he was born in Hawaii.
But please note that your headline is misleading, and does not accurately reflect the question in the poll.
The poll question was “Do you think Barack Obama was born in the United States?”
Your headline says “Less than half of Arkansans think Obama is a US citizen.”
Instead, it should be something like “Less than half of Arkansans think Obama is a natural-born US citizen”, or “Less than half of Arkansans think Obama was born in the United States.”
Stuart Feild
August 25, 2009
I think what bothers me the most is that no one seems to care that John Mccain was born in Panama… but it’s cool cause he’s a white dude.
Tom Wilkerson
August 25, 2009
Or maybe the headline should’ve read, “Less Than Half of Arkansans know Hawaii is a state.”
Jack Pierce;DEA
August 25, 2009
That’s quality, Tom.
Mullva
August 25, 2009
Let alone the beloved antichrist Palin in the union’s 49th addition!!!
Lemmings….just lemming.
Tony Wappel
August 26, 2009
I would be curious to see a state by state breakdown to see how widespread ignorance is across the country.
Another local resident
August 26, 2009
God I’m glad I live in Fayetteville. It’s an island of sanity in the middle of dumb-ef-ew-ce-kay-istan.
Luke
August 26, 2009
What a load of crap. 784 voters make up the results, and we’re suppose to believe that represents an accurate cross-section of a population of almost 3 million? Do they take into consideration the types of people who would actually respond to an automated
phone poll? By their own admission they don’t – but they still put their margin of error at +/- 3.5%. I’d put it at more like +/- 30%.
Not saying I disagree with the plausability of the findings, just their methods.
Me
August 26, 2009
@ Luke – Great point! What’s worse is that if you look into it, this is the way most polls work… completely unscientific results get used to create attention grabbing headlines!
Fayettenamese
August 26, 2009
If you hire a professional pollster to do an opinion survey for you, the first question they will likely ask is, “What do you want the data to say?” The point being that this stuff can be skewed a million different ways so that the end result is something that someone can get some press out of.
As for this study, I’d imagine the sample of people that you could find that (1) actually have a LAN line phone, (2) answer it when the number shows up unlisted, and (3) are willing to listen to an automated recording and follow the directions, are probably not the folks tuning into the nightly news or reading current event magazines.
Innarested Observer
August 26, 2009
Holy friggin dogshirt, can we drop this stupid topic? What is to be gained by keeping this nonissue on the table? Do we need a poll to know that there are a lot of morons in this state?
Must be a no news day. This makes me vomit. I don’t care if he’s a goddam Klingon… have you guys forgotten W? If I want crap like this I would read the Morning News.
Demographic
August 26, 2009
@Stuart Feild – His father was serving in the armed forces at the time, and it was in the Canal Zone, under U.S. protection. Military personnel who have children while on a U.S. base or protectorate are allowed to have their child’s birth registered as a U.S. Citizen.
Jane Xehn
August 26, 2009
“Dean Debnam of Public Policy Polling estimated that around 25,000 calls were made, and of those, 784 Arkansas voters from all over the state made up the results.”…
The population of Arkansas (2008 Census) is approximately 2.8 million people. This survey called less than 1% of the population in Arkansas, and of those called, only 784 answered? That is only 0.2% of 1% of the population, and given the results I wouldn’t hesitate to say that the survey is statistically flawed.
unicorn
August 27, 2009
whatever, he was clearly born in North Korea and sent her to undermine all us RealAmericans™ by ruining our healthcare system, coddling terrorists and forcing us all to get gay married.
George
August 27, 2009
Yes! Gay marriage for everyone, death panels to euthanize the old/useless, and mandatory abortions for every 3rd pregnancy. His master plan is all coming together.
Stuart Feild
August 27, 2009
@Demographic no sh*t, but it’s still Panama, and that is less of a state than Hawaii, so it’s a much stronger argument that John Mccain is less of a natural born citizen then Barack Obama.
steve
August 29, 2009
who cares? politics is such bull. spend you energy on something productive and worthwhile.
Sandy
September 2, 2009
Arkansas also rates its governor the highest in the country, the Democrat Mike Beebe who has a 12 point health care reform proposal with most of the proposals in the federal plans.
Arkansas gave more votes to John Kerry than Barack Obama. That’s not a poll, that’s the election results. You prefer a so-called liberal gigolo who defiled the uniform by lying about his medals and denigrating the honor of the Vietnam Veteran – over a black man. lol.
Get Real. Arkansas Democrats, you’ve got a lot to think about if you ever want to join the human race.