From a story in today’s Washington Post headlined Poll shows more Americans think Obama is a Muslim:

The number of Americans who believe — wrongly — that President Obama is a Muslim has increased significantly since his inauguration and now accounts for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s population.

Those results, from a new Pew Research Center survey, were drawn from interviews done before the president’s comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero, and they suggest that there could be serious political danger for the White House as the debate continues.

The president’s religion, like his place of birth, has been the subject of Internet-spread rumors and falsehoods since before he began his presidential campaign, and the poll indicates that those rumors have gained currency since Obama took office. The number of people who now correctly identify Obama as a Christian has dropped to 34 percent, down from nearly half when he took office.

Wonder why that is?

What is illustrative about this story is that roughly the same number of people believe Obama is a muslim and was born outside the United States as believe a mosque should be built on Ground Zero and the US Government was behind 9/11 — too bad we can’t do a Venn Diagram here.

If the Post is puzzled as to why this should be the case, it need look no further than the flaccid, sycophantic coverage it has given Obama the Senator, Obama the Candidate, and Obama the President.

Obama’s lack of experience: ignored.

The sale of Obama’s senate seat: ignored.

Failure of Senator Obama’s subcommittee to hold hearings on Afghanistan: ignored.

Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn: ignored.

Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright: ignored.

Obama’s appointment of a pedophile as safe schools czar: ignored.

Obama’s appointment of an avowed commie and 9/11 Troofer as “green jobs czar”: ignored.

Obama’s birth certificate: ignored.

I lump these all together for a reason because they are all stories the legacy media should have covered had they been as invested in doing their job as they were in promoting Obama’s candidacy. For those who pooh-pooh the idea that Obama’s birth origins warranted investigation I can only point out that the legacy media did cover the idea that John McCain’s birth in the US Canal Zone — to a US Naval officer and his American citizen wife — might exclude him from the Presidency. If you’re saying that being crazy per se disqualifies an idea as worthy of investigation I present Exhibit A  which proves conclusively that no idea is too crazy to be investigated: the aptly named Gary Sick’s October Surprise allegation.

Whenever an area of controversy has arisen concerning Obama it has been ignored by the press and anyone bringing up the subject demonized. This has had two effects. First, a lot of the nuttiness on this administration has been exposed by nontraditional media. Second, the refusal of the legacy media to investigate gives an aura of plausibility to just about any story circulating about the administration.

So while this lickspittle relationship the media has with Obama did enable him to win the presidency and it has enabled his egregious policies to escape public scrutiny, it has also created a climate where the media have sacrificed all credibility when it comes to dealing with negative stories about Obama.

I don’t know what Obama’s religion is and don’t much care. Obama’s quarter century in a front row seat in the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s house of hate isn’t any more dispositive of his Christianity than Bubba attending Matt Hale’s Church of the Creator but that doesn’t make him a muslim. If you’re predisposed to believe he is muslim, you will always fall back on the claim that he’s practicing taqiyya. Personally, I think Obama believes in one thing: that he should get what he wants. He sat through Wright’s racemongering Sabbath after Sabbath because it brought him influence. If he thought becoming a Buddhist would guarantee his election in 2012, we’d see him boarding Air Force One with a shaved head and wearing a saffron robe. He is his own monotheistic religion.

The illustration at the top of this story, though, indicates why this mysterious belief that Obama is a muslim not only persists, but is growing (if any MMfA goon gets this far be sure to read this paragraph closely). It is a claim that warrants investigation if the Post sees fit to run a story decrying as a calumny that one in five Americans believe this to be the case. It is a view that isn’t going to go away simply because the media feel uncomfortable examining Obama’s religion. Candidates from at least Jimmy Carter have had their religious beliefs scrutinized by theological imbeciles in the media, why does Obama get a pass? He shouldn’t. It wasn’t fair to the country that this and other allegations were ignored. And now, belatedly, the media are discovering that it wasn’t fair to either Obama or themselves.

With this particular president, the debate is over. Any story, no matter how ridiculous, will gain a substantial following because the media have sacrificed their credibility. Maybe in 2012, if we’re lucky, or 2016, if we’re not, the media will return to doing the job it claims it wants to do, to play a constructive role in our political process. They can do that by treating the candidates they like the same way they treat those they don’t like.