Polls

Americans strongly support Boston Olympics

| Tom Jensen

PPP’s newest national poll finds that Americans are very enthusiastic about the possibility of hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics. Asked generically if they support the country hosting them, 68% are in favor of it to only 12% who are opposed. There is pretty strong agreement across party lines with 74% of Democrats, 63% of independents, and 62% of Republicans supportive of hosting. When asked specifically about the possibility of Boston being the host, 56% of voters are still supportive to only 18% opposed to the bid. Even with all the attention various negative aspects of hosting the Olympics has received over the last few years, the prospect of hosting remains very appealing.

All of the revelations about Bill Cosby over the last few months have made the once beloved entertainer now an unpopular figure with Americans. Just 31% have a favorable opinion of him to 39% with an unfavorable view, and 30% who aren’t sure what to think. A plurality of voters- 41%- have no opinion either way of Cosby’s guilt or innocence but among those who do have one 39% think he’s guilty to just 20% who think he’s innocent. There’s a large racial divide in opinions about Cosby- white voters think he’s guilty 44/19, while African Americans think he’s innocent 41/20.

Pope Francis continues to have poll numbers that break down along ideological lines in a way that you wouldn’t generally expect for a Pope. Voters describing themselves as ‘very liberal’ approve of the job he’s doing 77/13, while voters identifying themselves as ‘very conservative’ disapprove 33/41. Overall the Pope has a very solid 61/17 approval rating that any politician would kill for, but it is interesting that his numbers are highest with ‘very liberal’ voters and then decline as you move right across the ideological spectrum.

37% of voters think American Sniper should win the Oscar for best picture compared to 11% for Selma and 6% for Boyhood with nothing else rising above 5%. What’s interesting is that 37% think American Sniper should win even though 55% of voters say they haven’t seen any of the movies nominated.  Lots of people are picking a winner without even having seen any of the movies. Another 15% say they’ve seen just one of the movies nominated, and 9% say they’ve seen two. Only 21% claim to have seen more than 2 of the films put forward. 

Loving American Sniper is particularly a big thing among Republicans- 53% of them think it should win best picture compared to 41% of independents and 23% of Democrats. Selma comes relatively close among Democrats with 16% saying they think it should win.

53% of Americans support ending the Cuban embargo to only 31% who think it should be continued. Democrats (61/20) and independents (55/33) are both pretty firmly in favor of ending the embargo. Republicans are pretty closely divided on the issue- 46% support continuing it while 41% would prefer ending it. This is hardly an issue where the views of the GOP base are monolithic.

Finally Americans agree with the conclusions Baseball Hall of Fame voters are coming to about players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Mark McGwire. 68% think players suspected of using steroids should not be elected to the HOF, compared to just 16% who think they should be.

Full results here

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