Donald Trump is getting a lot of flack for failing to correct a supporter at a town hall event in New Hampshire yesterday who asserted that President Obama is a Muslim and that the U.S. needs to "get rid" of all Muslims. Trump's roll-with-the-bigotry approach contrasted starkly with a similar episode in 2008, when presidential candidate John McCain flatly contradicted a voter who said Obama is an Arab.
But Trump's less than presidential response may actually work in his favor, serving to shore up his support after his uneven performance at the GOP debate on Wednesday. As the liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling recently showed, the false belief that Obama is a Muslim is held by more than half of Republicans.
Furthermore, PPP reported that a full 66 percent of Trump's supporters believe Obama is a Muslim, while 61 percent do not believe he was born in the States. This is Trump's core constituency, and it is a fairly influential segment of the GOP primary electorate.
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