Not All of Obama’s Actions are Popular

In a set of polling data released yesterday, Gallup noted that while most of the actions taken by President Obama have been relatively popular along with his job approval rating. There are two specific action he has taken that are most of the country disapproves of. These two would be the executive order closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and the lifting of the Mexico City Policy (which clears the way for federal funding to go to overseas family planning organizations that advocate and provide abortions). Accroding to the Gallup Poll (FYI: use of the Gallup logo here does not imply that the organization approves of or sponsored this blog) the closing of Guantanamo Bay has only a 44% approval (50% disapproval) and the repeal of the Mexico City policy has only a 35% approval (58% disapprove).

I have written here earlier about the implications of closing GITMO and about the repeal of the Mexico City policy. This goes to show that the liberal agenda that Obama began his presidency with is not as popular as the media might point out. Look as far as Guantanamo goes, the popularity of that action of what the media deemed was mistreatment (when most of the prisoners there live better than some of the citizens in our own country) ends when the question is asked where to send these terrorists. The NIMBY effect takes a hold on the American collective … Not In My Backyard. And in a time when the American economy is hurting, allowing funding for organizations that kill babies is seen as a waste of government money. But Democrats seem to be okay with that as I will point out later as I talk about the “stimulus” package. Obama won’t always do whats popular for the electorate … Pres. Bush proved that fact … but its about doing what is right for the country … and again Pres. Bush proved that as well … spending money on things that aren’t important and endangering our country by closing down a terrorist prison were the wrong things to do.

Implications of Closing GITMO

Today President Barack Obama signed an executive order that calls for the closing of the detention facility at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba NO LATER THAN ONE YEAR FROM TODAY. This order also calls for a review of whether terror detainees at Gitmo can be transferred to third party nations or if they can be prosecuted. Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) has offered up his home district to house the detainees a Guantanamo (transfer them from one detention center that is US soil to another in Central PA … makes sense … maybe Murtha’s house?). In my opinion, while perhaps Guantanamo wasn’t the best solution to the problem we faced of what to do with these enemy combatants, and we do need to address it because it has affected our standing around the world. But we should not be in a rush to solve it without seriously looking at the impact it could have on our nation and those who serve it. Take for instance the possibililty of placing all of these enemy combatants into the US justice system, an over crowded system that has problems today of providing even basic justice as times, and our jails are crowded as it is. I think using military tribunals would be a better solution and keep these trials of these combatants out of the regular judicial system. These people should not be afforded the same exact rights as US citizens because they are not citizens. Granted we should treat them as well as we would hope Americans would be treated abroad but that doesn’t mean the Bill of Rights pertains here in this case. If we placed these cases into the regular judicial system, the system would be overwhelmed. And looking at it … those combatants that have previously been released have gone back to Afghanistan and Iraq and been found fighting against our troops on the battlefield (again). There aren’t many countries (or American cities) that would be horribly excited to take in these terrorists. This is not as easy as signing a piece of paper, making a speech, or anything we have seen Obama do in the past. This is a difficult decision and as GOP Minority Whip Rep. Cantor said, “We need to have a serious, careful and realistic national discussion about the ramifications of closing Guantanamo Bay.”