It's no wonder Republican vitriol for President Barrack Obama often reaches a downright religious fervour.
According to a new poll, one in five believe he is the Antichrist.
Public Policy Polling, a firm based in Raleigh. North Carolina, surveyed 1,247 registered voters and found a slew of strange convictions -- often divided along partisan lines.
Republicans and Democrats also differ wildly on the issue of global warming. About 58 per cent of the former group see it as a hoax, while an overwhelming proportion of Democrats take it seriously.
Voters who support Mitt Romney have a special antipathy to global warming with 61 per cent of them seeing it as a joke.
"Even crazy conspiracy theories are subject to partisan polarization, especially when there are political overtones involved,” says Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But most Americans reject the wackier ideas out there about fake moon landings and shape-shifting lizards."
The poll also reveals an abiding fascination with the fringe among Americans of every political stripe.
The Roswell UFO cover-up? Oh yeah, that was real -- at least, according to nearly a third of Americans surveyed.
Bigfoot, naturally, makes an appearance in the poll, with a substantial number of respondents believing the so-called 'missing link' still walks the Earth.
Here are a few more chestnuts from the poll:
- 15 per cent of Americans believe new diseases are invented to keep Big Pharma profits rolling.
- Nearly one in ten see a diabolical design in the fluoridation of city water supplies.
- 15 per cent are convinced the government (okay, maybe just the media) spices up television signals with secret mind control rays.
- Nearly a third of Americans believe in aliens.
The survey has a 2.8 percent margin of error. Thirty-eight percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats while 34 per cent called themselves Republicans and the others fell into the 'Independent/Other' category.
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