According to the American Research Group the numbers don't look good for the Bush/Cheney junta. When asked this question:
Do you favor or oppose the US House of Representatives beginning impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush?A near equal split occurred. 45% of those polled favored IMPEACHMENT with 46% opposed. The theoretical margin of error is plus or minus 3%. By the way, a majority of those polled (54%) favored IMPEACHMENT of Vice-President Cheney. Only 40% opposed.
The numbers for dubya's numbers break down this way. Democrats favor/oppose IMPEACHMENT by 69/22 percent. Republicans (understandably, I guess) favor/oppose IMPEACHMENT by 13/86 percent. And fully half of the Independents favor/oppose IMPEACHMENT by 50/30 percent.
According to this Newsweek poll, dubya doesn't seem to be doing a good job. When asked this question:
Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time?Only 24% answered that they were satisfied with the way things are going. 67% (or 2/3rds) said they were dissatisfied.
When asked this question:
Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?Only 26% of those polled said they approved. 60% disapproved.
Just keeping y'all (y'inz?) up-to-date on how badly this president has been doing his job.
7 comments:
Just keeping y'all (y'inz?) up-to-date on how badly this president has been doing his job.
To be more accurate, David, you are really only telling us how badly people think this president have been doing his job. Speaking for myself, I have never really cared very much what polls have to say about anything. And I especially don't care what the polls have to say about impeachment. I didn't care when they were about Clinton, and I really don't care about them at this particular moment of the Bush presidency.
The president is term-limited. If he weren't, I would be much more interested in pursuing impeachment. But the dude is all but gone already, and I have no stomach for the massive division that an impeachment would create.
Moreover, this ludicrous yet unstoppable drive to forever push the presidential primaries to ever-more-earlier dates makes it seem like the bloody election is happening in the next few weeks. With the election for his successor (seemingly) just around the corner, impeachment seems like a silly and unnecessary step.
I'm really not so sure that presidential term limits were a good idea. I'm almost certain that, if there were any risk that we could be stuck with Bush yet again, more people would not just in support of, but really demanding his impeachment. But given that he is already on his way out the door, and after seeing just how damaging the Clinton impeachment turned out to be for the nation as a whole, I would rather just let them man depart without the need to fire up his supporters -- and once he was impeached, you might be surprised just how many of them are out there -- in a manner that could affect the election of his successor.
Admiral
"i second that emotion"
Admiral;
Of course you're right. Poll numbers only show what people think about an issue (indeed, they can really only offer a snapshot of what they think at a given moment), but with so many people thinking that dubya's doing so poorly at the job, it's hard to imagine he's doing anything but.
But as they used to say, 500,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong.
I would disagree, though, with your point that Bush is "all but gone already." According to this site as of today, there's still some 562 days left to his administration.
A lot of damage can be done in 562 days. If you need any evidence to that, just take a look at the last 562 days.
My general point about impeachment is that the insult on our system of government has been so egregious that for the sake of the integrity of that system someone has to be held legally accountable for dubya's sins. It should be dubya.
If not, then the next person to sit in the Oval office might be tempted to commit similar insults.
I'd agree with you, by the way, about pushing up the primaries - it's just silly. But then again there's always been something silly about having the primaries system structured the way it is.
It would only take one day to start a war in Iran, for example, and maybe another fifty to bungle the shit out of it.
One things for certain this administration could care less what the poll numbers are. They could fall to zero and they wouldn't blink an eye. They have their agenda and to hell with everyone.
The House should begin impeachment proceedings against Cheney immediately.
The American people are waiting for Democrats to stand up to these guys, but they'll just keep grousing about how lousy the Administration is and how they could do something if their hands were tied...
Well, enough of that. Stand up. Be bold. And quit worrying about the political consequences of every move they make - which is all the Democrats do. But if you do that, no one will ever do what is right - and right now that's stopping Bush/Cheney.
It doesn't matter if they have 500 days left or two - impeach, because that's what needs to happen. That's why we have it. That's why the Founders gave it to us - for creeps like Dick and George.
Honestly, what would have to happen for a Congress to impeach these days? Apparently, lying to start a war that has killed nearly 4,000 and maimed 25,000, killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, warrantless wiretapping and other domestic spying, signing statements, Katrina, the Plame outing, billions of dollars missing from the war budget, secret meetings with energy officials(where they likely were already divying up the oil in Iraq) just don't cut these days.
To Mr. Turner,
I very much doubt that impeachment would seriously divide the country.
But if you don't care about polls, well, they you just don't know what your talking about. Statistics is a fairly refined science and if you know what you're looking for, polls can give pretty sound indications as to what the public is thinking.
And in a democracy, what the public thinks is generally pretty important.
But Bush is politically dead. He will never recover. In fact, since 9/11 Bush's numbers have been falling. That's nearly a 6 year skid. You don't come back from that. People don't rally to that kind of leader.
People are afraid of impeachment and they shouldn't be. It's one of the greatest things the Founders gave us. It's just a matter of knowing when to use it. But to suggest that we shouldn't simply because of the Clinton impeachment is absurd. You do it because that is exactly what the Constitution calls for in these situations.
I'm really not comfortable letting these guys walk away scott free on 1/20/09. How many more will have died in Iraq? How much more will Americans and the rest of the world suffer as a result of the disastrous policies of this administration? To me, it's just unconscionable to idly bide our time and wait for the day he leaves office. I don't want that blood on my hands and I don't think Democrats do either. But it will be if they play it safe.
They have the power to save thousands of lives from not being lost over the next year and a half. It seems to me stopping that is worth whatever political price you might pay.
But to do nothing and just wait...no, that's almost unforgivable. And taking impeachment off the table is as dismissive of our Constitution as Bush's signing statements.
If Democrats had any real political courage, and maybe they'll find it someday and start acting like Democrats(which is largely the problem that the vast majority of Americans who identify with Democrats have with the party - they don't act like Democrats!) they could save millions of people from alot of pain and suffering. But nothing will ever change if they keep playing it safe.
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