Karl Rove urges US Republicans to stop falling into Obama 'birther' trap

Washington, Feb 18(ANI): Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff to former US President George W. Bush, has urged Republican Party politicians to avoid falling into the "birther" movement trap, and to stop fueling rumors that President Barack Obama was not born in the US.

"Within our party, we've got to be very careful about allowing these people who are the birthers and the 9/11-deniers to get too high a profile and say too much without setting the record straight," Fox News quoted Rove, as saying.

"We need the leaders of our party to say, 'Look, stop falling into the trap of the White House and focus on the real issues'," he added.

Rove said that he thinks that the Obama administration relishes the continued existence of the birther movement because it distracts from how the President is handling policy issues.

"Look, these guys may be lousy at governing, but they're damn good at politics," Rove said.

A poll released earlier this week surveyed 400 Republican primary voters nationwide and found that 51 percent of them believe that Obama was born outside the US.

That percentage is up from 44 percent from when the Public Policy Polling (PPP) asked the same question in August 2009, when 36 percent said that Obama was definitely born in the US.

In the new poll, only 28 percent of those surveyed believe he was born in the US and 21 percent are unsure. (ANI)