The Other McCain

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Let’s Laugh Now: Palin Edges Huckabee Among Mississippi Segregationists?

Posted on | April 9, 2011 | 4 Comments

While checking Memeorandum to keep track of the latest government shutdown developments Friday, I saw this headline at the liberal Talking Points Memo blog:

Nearly Half Of Mississippi Republicans
Think Interracial Marriage Should Be Illegal

Hmmmmm. So I went over to check the results at Public Policy Polling and found that, in a poll of “400 usual Mississippi Republican primary voters” — ostensibly intended to measure support for Gov. Haley Barbour’s GOP presidential bid, and Republican preferences for Barbour’s successor — liberal pollster Tom Jensen made this the 14th question in the survey:

Do you think interracial marriage should be legal or illegal?

Of course, no such legislative proposal is pending in Mississippi, but 46% of respondents answered, “illegal.” Frankly, I’d gone to the PPP site hoping to find out what percentage of Mississippi Democrats share that opinion, but Jensen has never asked Democrats any such question.

So we are left to laugh at the cross-tabs by which Jensen correlates (a) opposition to interracial marriage with (b) favorability of GOP 2012 contenders:

Haley Barbour . . . 79%
Sarah Palin . . . . . 74%
Mike Huckabee . . . 73%
Newt Gingrich . . . 56%
Mitt Romney . . . . 44%

Clearly, Romney’s got to do something to shore up his support among segregationists, or this could spell serious trouble for him in the crucial Mississippi presidential primary.

Category: Election 2012, Haley Barbour, Marriage, Mike Huckabee, Mississippi, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Polls, Racism, Sarah Palin

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