69% Oppose Ports Deal, but Meaningless

Even though a FoxNews poll shows that a wide majority of Americans oppose the Ports deal and it is obviously unpopular politically, these figures are both unsurprising and meaningless.

The main reason the poll is both unsurprising and meaningless is that if you asked any American the question, "Would you want your company to be acquired by a foreign (nevermind Arab) firm?," the poll results would likely be very similar. In other words, not many people voluntarily like it when foreign firms buy American firms (even though in this case, it's a British firm being bought).

Secondly, Americans are rightly concerned about security, and like it or not - we do have a skepticism about Arabs when it comes to security. Maybe it's all those stereotypes such as Alibaba and the Forty Thieves, maybe it's the reality that not many Arab countries have been particularly helpful in our fight against terrorism (even though some are obviously more helpful than others), or maybe it's just because we don't like "outsourcing our U.S. jobs" to foreign firms.

Whatever the case, we live in a capitalistic society, so we can't outlaw foreign ownership of U.S. assets, unless of course, there are security risks. In this case, those risks should be evaluated, but the deal should be judged on the merits - not on some poll that produces an obvious conclusion.