Goodbye Guantanamo?

On Thursday, President Obama ordered the closure of the U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay detention center, fulfilling a campaign promise but raising a host of legal and practical issues, including what to do with detainees deemed "too dangerous" to release. Americans aren't clear about what should be done at Gitmo. Two recent polls show support for keeping it open, but a third shows opposition to doing so. In a mid-January CBS News/New York Times poll, 48 percent of Americans said that Guantanamo should be "kept open," compared to 40 percent who said it should be closed. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that 47 percent of Americans thought that the U.S. should continue to operate the facility, compared to 51 percent who said the government should close it and transfer its prisoners to other facilities. When asked by Gallup in mid-January whether the U.S. should or should not close the facility, a plurality were in favor of keeping the facility open (45 percent), compared to 35 percent who said it should be closed. A solid majority of Republicans and a plurality of independents were in favor of keeping the facility open, while a majority of Democrats favored closing it.

In another Gallup poll, only 32 percent of those surveyed said it was "very important" for Obama to "keep his promise" to close Guantanamo. By comparison, 73 percent said it was "very important" for him to keep his promise to ensure that all children have health insurance.

Source: The Gallup Organization, January 2009.