Not Just Suggestability Making Republicans Credit Romney for Killing Bin Laden

So, PublicPolicyPolling continued its long trend of asking slightly oddball questions this past weekend by asking people in Ohio whether they think Barack Obama or Mitt Romney deserves more credit for the death of Osama bin Laden. The splashy headline is that 15% of Republicans say Romney, while just 38% gave credit to Obama. Their Twitter feed informed us that they asked this question to see if Republicans will give Obama credit for anything, and the answer seems to be no. Except, well, people will say anything if you prompt them to. Maybe they just credited Romney because the poll suggested that one might plausibly credit Romney?

But no, that's not it. Because, you see, they gave results for the two other partisan groups as well. Among Democrats, it's 86% Obama, 1% Romney. Among independents, it's 64% to 1%. It looks like raw suggestibility isn't enough to generate a non-trivial number of people saying Romney killed bin Laden. And, I mean, there are plenty of independents who don't much like Obama. But they're not trying to credit Romney, they're just slightly less willing to credit Obama than Democrats. It's just partisan Republicans who are even remotely willing to say Romney should get credit here.

So, the moral of the story is to be every bit as shocked and outraged as the headline numbers suggest you should be. It's not just suggestability, it's over-the-top partisanship.