Obama Losing the Argument on Guantanamo Bay

It seems reasonable to assume that President Obama gave his speech from the National Archives last week, focusing mostly on his proposal to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo Bay, because polls suggested that he was losing the argument. The speech doesn’t appear to have helped much, if this Rasmussen survey is correct: by a 49 to 38 percent margin, voters oppose closing Gitmo. Here’s why: only 25 percent buy Obama’s argument that the facility has weakened our security, a view that is outnumbered two to one.

UPDATE: It’s only a guess, but being on the “wrong” side of this issue may be hurting Obama politically. Over the last couple of weeks his Approval Index, as measured by Rasmussen (the difference between “strong approval” and “strong disapproval”) has been rising due to increasing optimism about the economy. Now, though, it’s dropping again. As of today the Approval Index is down to +1, equaling the lowest of Obama’s administration so far. That means that only 1 percent more voters strongly approve of his performance than strongly disapprove. A Senate debate over a liberal Supreme Court nominee won’t help those numbers any.

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