John Hawkins recently polled right-of-center/conservative bloggers asking questions copied from a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll. Here’s why.

The poll results were treated as suspect mainly because some controversial questions were asked the results featured what many conservatives perceived as an unusually high percentage of flaky answers.

Comparing the two polls is an interesting exercise. While there are some questions that tracked relatively close to one another, some of the more controversial questions featured significantly different results. Those regarding President Obama are a good example.

In the Kos poll 39% of respondents answered “Yes” to the question, “Should Barack Obama be impeached, or not?” 32% answered “No”. (The Kos poll had the additional option of “Not Sure”)

In contrast, only 9 of the 78 bloggers (11%) who responded to that question answered “Yes.” The other 88% answered “No.”

It is de rigueur to paint the entire right as “birthers”, but look at the difference in response to the question “Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?”

• Daily Kos “Yes” — 42%
• RWN “Yes” — 80%

Quite a difference.

On one Obama characteristic the two polls are much closer. “Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?”

• Kos “Yes” — 63%
• RWN “Yes” — 89%

The accompanying comment by Kos blames the results on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. A better explanation might be the takeover of banks and auto companies, and the attempted takeover of the medical system.

One thing to note. The Kos poll was a phone poll of self-identified Republicans. John’s poll was of Right-of-Center bloggers, and he points out:

Now, right-of-center bloggers don’t match up exactly to the Republican base. They’re more knowledgeable, more libertarian, and less socially conservative than Republicans overall, but still, they seemed like a roughly representative group.

There are several questions on the Kos poll that John didn’t ask. Here’s one that I’m curious about:

Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?

The Kos Results:

• Yes 53
• No 14
• Not Sure 33

You can express your opinion in the poll embedded in the side bar. Your comments are welcome as well.