Less than half or Republicans believe President Obama is an American citizen:

Only 42 percent of Republican respondents in a Research 2000 survey, conducted for the liberal website Daily Kos, said they thought Obama was a natural born citizen; 28 percent said they did not believe Obama was born in the United States; 30 percent said they were not sure.

That should explain why Republican Members of Congress are so nervous answering Mike Stark’s questions. President Bush was so awful and President Obama presented such a better case that all that’s left of the Republican party is the tinfoil hat-wearing lunatic fringe. And that’s who the remaining Republicans in Congress have to listen to to get re-elected.

Of course, having a party made up of conspiracy theorists is dragging the GOP down. Case in point, Lou Dobbs, the right wing talk show host masquerading as mainstream, has seen his ratings plummet since taking the birther pill:

According to The Observer’s analysis of Nielsen data, in recent weeks, as criticism of Mr. Dobbs has continued to go up, his ratings at CNN have continued to go down.

Mr. Dobbs’ first began reporting on Obama birth certificate conspiracy theories on the night of Wednesday, July 15. In the roughly two weeks since then, from July 15 through July 28, Mr. Dobbs’ 7 p.m. show on CNN has averaged 653,000 total viewers and 157,000 in the 25-54 demo.

By contrast, during the first two weeks of the month (July 1 to July 14) Mr. Dobbs averaged 771,000 total viewers and 218,000 in the 25-54 demo. In other words, Mr. Dobbs’ audience has decreased 15 percent in total viewers and 27 percent in the demo since the start of the controversy.

I wonder when Republican Members of Congress in purple areas of the country start seeing the same trend, as voters who aren’t a bit nuts start turning away from this racist, unhinged display.