Thursday, March 4, 2010

New poll

A new poll of American opinion on relations with Cuba has been released. Its results are different and not as clear-cut as a Fox News poll last year that showed 59 percent support for normalization of relations and 30 percent support for the embargo.

The new Harris poll was performed on-line, not by interview. It has no margin of error attached to it and Harris claims that other survey research firms are misleading to use that term. Herald story here; Harris press release here.

It says 23 percent consider Cuba to be unfriendly and an enemy, a view that increased in prevalence with respondents’ age, and the rest consider Cuba to be either not an enemy or an ally. Regarding President Obama’s lifting of travel restrictions for Cuban Americans, 45 percent say this is too much of an “overture” and 29 percent say it’s not enough. By a 57-17 margin, respondents agree that American business is definitely or probably missing business opportunities.

Thirty-eight percent would like to visit Cuba and 49 percent would like President Obama to go. Maybe he should go, and our thinking will be clearer when he gets back.

No comments: