With a new administration in the White House, opponents of the Cuba embargo are hoping to pass legislation that could gradually chip away at the total embargo in place against the island. Last week Representative Bill Delahunt [D-Mass.] introduced the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act. That legislation would completely prohibit the President from prohibiting travel to Cuba, and transactions incident to such travel, by U.S. citizens and legal residents. The only exceptions would be a state of war between the U.S. and Cuba (presumably a war actually declared by Congress) or an imminent danger to public health.

Coincidentally, on the same day that Delahunt introduced his legislation, the pro-embargo group Cuba Democracy Public Advocacy issued a press release announcing the results of a poll that the group had commissioned and which found that 69 percent of Cuban-Americans “support the prohibition of tourist travel to the island.” Leaving aside the somewhat peculiar notion that U.S. policy on this matter should be controlled by the opinions of Cuban-Americans rather than the entire population, the commissioned poll doesn’t really support the conclusion asserted by CDPA.

Accepted poll methodology requires that the questions used by the poll be neutral questions that don’t influence the likely response. For example, a poll might properly ask “Do you prefer Cola A or Cola B,” not “Do you prefer the refreshing taste of Cola A to the acrid taste of Cola B?” Here’s the question asked by the poll which allegedly supports the conclusion that 69 percent of Cuban-Americans do not favor travel to Cuba:

Do you agree or disagree that US tourism [sic] should not be authorized to vacation in Cuba until the Cuban regime releases all political prisoners, respects basic human rights and schedules free elections?

I wonder what the results would have been if the poll asked this question instead:

Do you agree or disagree that U.S. tourists should not be authorized to vacation in Cuba even though such tourism might promote better relations between the United States and the Cuban people?

My guess is that the numbers would be significantly different. Even if a majority of Cuban Americans still agreed with the question biased in the other direction, CDPA doesn’t enhance its credibility by promoting the results of a push-poll.

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