Quarter of Republicans think Obama may be the anti-Christ

A new controversial survey has suggested that a quarter of Republicans think US president Barrack Obama may be the anti-Christ.

From seeing Obama as a socialist to the anti-Christ, the diverging views held by Republicans, Democrats and Independents, were reported by the new Harris poll.

Americans have some extreme views of Obama, with the survey suggesting that 40% of adults believe he is a socialist, and about a quarter of survey participants thinking the president is a racist, anti-American and even doing things Hitler did.

14% of Americans say president Obama may be the anti-Christ.

When split by political party, 24% of Republicans and 6% of Democrats viewed the nation's leader in this way.

40% of Republicans, compared with just 15% of Democrats, think Wall Street pulls his strings.

The results come from an online Harris Poll involving 2,320 adults who were surveyed online between March 1 and March 8 by Harris Interactive, a market research firm.

Respondents were read each of 15 statements and asked whether they thought they were true or false.

The sample of people was selected from among roughly 4 million people who agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys and are given "modest incentives," according to Harris.

The results were then weighted to reflect the composition of the US adult population.

When Harris' Taylor saw the results he told Live Science he was "flabbergasted. I would've guessed the numbers would've been a lot smaller than that."

"It means that very large numbers of people are misinformed not only about president Obama but many things in modern life," he added.