Posted on 06/02/2009 10:00:06 PM PDT by kellynla
I've gotten a look inside the Gallup poll numbers showing that a majority of Americans oppose shutting down the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. The numbers are stunning. They show a strong and virtually across-the-board rejection of President Obama's proposal to close the prison.
Overall, 65 percent of those surveyed oppose shutting Gitmo, versus 32 percent who say it should be closed. According to the poll's internal numbers, large majorities of men oppose closing the prison, large majorities of women oppose it, large majorities of white people oppose it, large majorities of non-white people oppose it, people with graduate degrees oppose it, and people who didn't finish high school oppose it. Pretty much everybody.
For Obama, the key numbers are the ones that break down opinion by political party. Ninety-one percent of Republicans oppose shutting Gitmo. Sixty-eight percent of independents oppose it, too. The only group that favors shutting down the prison is Democrats, and that is by a relatively narrow 53 percent to 42 percent margin.
When virtually the entire opposition party, plus 68 percent of independents, plus 42 percent of your own party oppose something you want to do, then you're in trouble.
Another part of the poll asked respondents, "What effect do you think the Guantanamo Bay prison has had on U.S. national security? Overall, 40 percent say the prison has strengthened national security, while 37 percent say it has not had much effect at all. Just 18 percent say the existence of Guantanamo has weakened national security.
Among Republicans, five percent say Gitmo has weakened national security. Among independents, just 14 percent say the same, and among Democrats, just 33 percent say the prison has weakened national security. That means that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject the key argument the Obama White House has put forward for closing Guantanamo -- that it has weakened American national security.
Finally, Gallup asked whether, if Guantanamo were closed, respondents would favor or oppose moving some of the inmates to prisons in their state. No surprises here -- overall, 74 percent oppose having Gitmo detainees come to their state, while just 23 percent favor it. Broken down by party, 94 percent of Republicans oppose it, 78 percent of independents oppose it, and 56 percent of Democrats oppose it.
That is overwhelming opposition, and these results are devastating for the president's plan to shut down Guantanamo.
Obama has a Gitmo plan? I guess I didn’t know that.
Neuter him in 2010, and run the quisling out on a rail in 2012.
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA IN HIS OWN WORDS
NOW WE KNOW WHAT A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER DOES
OBAMA, THE STOCK MARKET, AND ENERGY
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S UPBRINGING
Sounds like a plan to me...now it's up to the Gelding Old Party to get a testicle & spine implant before next year to “get the ball rolling!”
Semper Fi,
Kelly
I thought the media meme is that only Cheney and Limbaugh want it to stay open
>> Overall, 65 percent of those surveyed oppose shutting Gitmo, versus 32 percent who say it should be closed
There’s some spine-enhancing information for the Republicans.
Ninety percent of Democrats don’t know where Gitmo is.
Good news. I'll take good news where ever it can be found.
Ninety percent of Democrats don’t know where USA is...
..and really don't care, Where's that Government teat?
We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their
elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake
to find they have Communism." - Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev, 1959
BTTT!
Keep em down there, feed em spam.
And the real argument for keeping the jihadists off US soil hasn’t even been made, although the Moslem assassin in Arkansas tried to make it. It’s not your third- grader effort, “No one has ever escaped from a super-max prison, “ BO. It is the recruitment of Moslems inside US prisons, where the jihadists would become celebrities. Chris Matthews actually managed to have a panel of 5 so-called journalists on Sunday AM who thought BO was winning the argument with Cheney “on substance,” although it split 3-2 on the “politics, “ with Matthews and one other Obama sycophant thinking the “NIMBY argument” would win.
It is also a problem that surrounding communities become targets of suicide actions similar to the Beslan School attack in Russia. No one wants to bring this issue to the table for discussion.
What seems to be left out of the poll is this question: do you oppose using enhanced interrogation techniques aka “torture” on the Gitmo scum er excuse me prisoners? I would bet that even many Dems have no problem with roughing up the poor dears.
The week after the 2004 elections, GWB should have ordered all of the detainees shot. They wouldn’t have any fresh useful information by that point, anyway. We’d have had five years for the world to f***ing get over it.
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