Americans favor keeping Gitmo in business

It isn’t just Congress that’s stalling Barack Obama’s hopes for closing the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Ordinary Americans favor keeping Gitmo open by a two-to-one margin, according to a new USA Today/Gallup survey released today. The survey, conducted by phone among 1,015 adults, also suggests that a sizeable number think Gitmo’s helped make the country safer:

By 40%-18%, [respondents] said the prison had strengthened national security rather than weakened it.

Those who want the prison to remain open feel more strongly on the subject tha[n] those who want to close it. A 54% majority of those polled say the prison shouldn’t be closed, and that they’ll be upset if the administration moves forward to close it.”