WaPo poll: Release of Obama birth certificate cuts # of birthers in half

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Brendan Nyhan!

I've been tweaking above-the-fray political scientist Nyhan over his series of "misperception" studies for some time.  This one gives him some explaining to do, particularly in light of something he wrote in anticipation of the reaction to President Obama sharing his long-form Hawaiian certificate of live birth:

Given how much evidence is already available, it's hard to see why a long-form birth certificate would suddenly change the minds of people who are predisposed to believe in the myth. The hardcore are already shifting to new rationales for questioning Obama's right to hold office and deconstructing the PDF released by the White House for supposed evidence of forgery.

Perhaps if Nyhan's conclusions had been as equivocal as his data then he'd have less to explain.

Here's one blogger enthusiastically awaiting Nyhan's explanation.  Especially for the drop in Democrat birtherism from 15 percent all the way down to 7 percent, or about the same reduction by percentage as found among  conservative Republicans.