Things like this make me fear the future of American democracy

"Fifty one per cent of Republican primary voters said they endorsed the controversial "birther" theory that Mr Obama was not born in Hawaii." What's really terrifying is that whoever these conspiracy theorists nominate could be president if things don't go well in the next two years. I take solace, though, in the fact that the GOP primary process is so predictable it might as well be rigged (the nomination in an open year invariably goes to the runner-up in the last open year - 2000 being the sole exception post-1968, and that was because Pat Buchanan a) had gone way off the reservation, b) was utterly unqualified having never been in elected office of any kind, and c) had already left the GOP before the first primary). Still, with Romney and Huckabee splitting the claim to be runner-up (Romney get the second most popular votes and Huckabee the second most delegates) and Romney being weighed down by RomneyCare in Massachusetts, who knows?