Media Matters documents more suggestions that Barack Obama is a traitor, which this time come from (who else?) Ann Coulter:

On the April 30 edition of CNN Headline News’ Glenn Beck program, conservative pundit Ann Coulter asked of Sen. Barack Obama: “Is Obama a Manchurian candidate to normal Americans who love their country? … Or is he being the Manchurian candidate to the traitor wing of the Democratic Party?” Host Glenn Beck did not challenge Coulter’s remarks.

Coulter has previously referred to Obama as “B. Hussein Obama” in the past and called him “President Hussein.” She has also compared Obama to Adolf Hitler, calling Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father, a “dimestore Mein Kampf.”

Coulter is not the first media figure to apply the “Manchurian candidate” label to Obama. On February 26, conservative radio host Bill Cunningham both referred to Obama as “this Manchurian candidate” and asserted, “I do not believe Barack Hussein Obama is a terrorist or a Manchurian candidate.” On February 25, Time magazine political analyst Mark Halperin posted a list titled “Things McCain Can Do to Try to Beat Obama That Clinton Cannot,” on his website The Page, in which he suggested that McCain “can …[e]mphasize Barack Hussein Obama’s unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism.”

During her appearance, Coulter also suggested that Obama “secretly agrees with the Weathermen and the Reverend Wright faction.”

Sadly, this kind of garbage has taken a toll on Obama’s public image:

Mr. Obama has vulnerabilities. Only 29 percent of registered voters said they considered him “very patriotic,” compared with 40 percent who described Mrs. Clinton that way. Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, was considered “very patriotic” by 70 percent of the registered voters.

For more on Coulter, see our extensive writings about her at Spinsanity as well as my posts on her here.

Update 5/2 10:26 AM: In comments, Rob makes the fair point that we can’t be sure about whether these smears have had a causal inference on perceptions of Obama’s patriotism. That is true. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine they’re not having an effect.