Our very own Washington Independent picks up a fascinating study from the Public Policy Polling survey of North Carolina, which not only shows that a razor-thin majority of Tar Heels are actually sure Barack Obama is legitimately signing laws and whatnot, but that nearly one in ten of them were “not sure” or DID NOT THINK that Hawaii was actually part of the good ‘ole U. S. of A. [for reals]

“The new Public Policy Polling survey of North Carolina, which finds that only 54 percent of the state’s voters know that President Obama was born in the United States, finds that only 92 percent are absolutely sure that the mysterious state of Hawaii counts as American soil. Only 27 percent of McCain voters say that Obama was born in America, and only 89 percent of McCain voters count the Aloha state as part of the United States.”

Damn. Maybe Miss Teen South Carolina 2007, who was internationally ridiculed for explaining that "a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map" because of America’s crushing map shortage – was really on to something.

Stay tuned for a WaPo headline along the lines of "Obama to push for second stimulus aimed at map production"

(Note to the apparently significant number of geographically challenged Americans: North Carolina is located directly north of South Carolina. Trust us. It’s, like, right above it. So Miss S.C.’s got street cred on this one.)