The Tea Party anti-big government, anti-tax, anti-some-other-stuff folks are sinking their ideological roots into the Golden State rather quickly -- and deeply.

Hmm, and there's a midterm election for every House seat, a third of the Senate and dozens of governors' chairs this coming November.

A new Field Poll out this afternoon finds that 28% of the state's voters identify with that protest movement while nearly two-thirds already know about them. California support for these protesters is concentrated among Republicans and conservatives, whose energy, money, online muscle and motivation played significant roles in some recent elections, fed, according to other polls, by growing concerns about federal spending and record deficits.

The Ticket described some internal Tea Party convention turmoil here this morning.

Meanwhile, the same new Field Poll asked about the long-simmering controversy over Barack Obama's birth and whether he is a real American-born citizen and, therefore, constitutionally allowed to be president.

Courts have tossed the challenges but that hasn't stopped the arguments, as you'll no doubt soon see in the Comments below.

Obama's mother was an American, if you count Kansas as America. Which legally should end the issue wherever the birth took place, Kenya or not.

However, Hawaii following state privacy guidelines has released only copies of a Certificate of Live Birth, not the real thing.

And Obama has not waived his privacy rights, allowing the actual certificate to be released.So why hasn't he, the so-called "birthers" ask.

And suspicions remain that although the president's announced birth year is 1961, maybe who knows it could be he was born there before Hawaii became a state in 1959. On the other hand, John McCain was born on a U.S. naval base in the Panama Canal Zone and it never was a state. But both his parents were Americans and Obama's father was a Kenyan. And on and on.

So, the Field Poll inquired and found that while two-thirds of Californians (67%) are satisfied that Obama was U.S.-born, fully one-third of the nation's most populous state are not. In fact, 11% are certain that he's a Constitution-violating foreigner and 22% are not sure.

A spokesman for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who as an Austrian native is ineligible to be president, said he would have no comment. Now, about the nationality of Flat Stanley.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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