Personally, I would say that ‘birthers’ have done a moderate amount of damage to the Republican brand. I tend to be a policitally aware independent and even though I know that most Repubs don’t accept the argument, they seem so eager to attack the pres on any baseless grounds that it seems to be going fairly uncontested.
The whole thing is so completely stupid that to do anything other than totally reject the birthers claims seems to me to be a form a encouragement, which associates the Republican party with gullible morons. As I don’t consider myself a gullible moron, I’m not very likely to associate with them in the future unless they can discuss something a little more substantive.
To respond very directly to the OP: to me, this sort of stuff definitely hurts the “brand.”
My personal beliefs are something I would describe as “socially-minded libertarian,” which means I’ve tended to waver in support between the two parties. In the past few years, I’ve found myself swinging almost exclusively towards the Democratic party, though, since I’m increasingly repelled by the Republican base (and the birther movement is a prime example of WHY I’m repelled).
There’s certainly nutjobs on both sides of the spectrum, but my perception is that birthers, aggro-Evangelicals, sexual bigots, etc. are more “mainstream” within the right. I find it unsettling to associate myself with these sorts of things.
I went to visit my sister out in the Midwest while the campaigning was going on. I was at her church where some guy was giving a presentation of Obama’s birth certificate and why Obama wasn’t an American. I thought it funny and hilarious, but then I heard from other people in other parts of the country that they were subject to the same presentation. I think its the hardcore Religious Right, thats keeping this subject alive. Probably the same fanaticism that driving these same people to go out and heckle the Presidents healthcare initiative.
The same people who are so adamantly against abortion, yet can’t see that their are thousands of American’s dying becasue they can’t afford the surgery or the medicine that could save their lives.
At the risk of sounding like a nutter myself, isn’t it fairly well documented that Bush’s (and Clinton’s) office were warned that something big was in the works in the weeks leading up to 9/11/01?
I’m STILL fighting with a friend about this. He says it’s not the same thing as a “birth certificate.” He was born in the same state I was. His birth certificate says the same thing Obama’s and yours and mine and Clinton’s and John Boehner’s says. What in the FUCK are they trying to say? I cannot help but think that this attempt to de-Americanize him is rooted in racism, plain and simple. It’s not about politics. They’ve never done this to any other Dem (that I’m aware of). There may have been questions before, but never the vicious, wrong-headed campaign we’re seeing here.
That doesn’t tell us anything about Democrats. The actual poll questions are not provided.
They could range from, “did Bush know that terrorists would fly jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001?” to, “did President Bush know that terrorists were planning to attack the US mainland in 2001?”
I find it more than slightly suspicious that Rasmussen didn’t bother to provide the methodology, margin of error, or the poll questions as asked.