Law of unintended consequences - someone on Diane Rehm suggested today that

[hedgehog]

if Bush were impeached, his approval ratings would climb. I think it's inaccurate to compare an impeachment based on actual crimes to Clinton's impeachment by the Republicans, but it's a possibility to consider. Remember, in 2004 almost half the people in the country voted for Bush.

[rodeodance]

1. we have a lot of idiots in the US!!

[groovedaddy]

3. Unfortunately, SO TRUE

"You can fool some of the people all of the time"
Yep, that's them!

[DangerDave921]

2. It will happen

There's always that weird sympathy factor that kicks in when the public perceives that someone is being ganged up on. I can't explain it. The people trying to correct the wrong, even if they are totally correct, end up looking like bullies.

[NoodleBoy]

4. two very different things: remember, the Republicans started impeachment after

the 1998 midterms where they lost seats running while running their campaign on "we're going to impeach the president."

it was widely looked at as sore-loserism, and was carried on the backs of Republican congressmen who had lost their elections but were not out of office yet.

It was also fairly innocuous-- "They're impeaching the president for a BJ? don't they have better things to do?"

And, Clintons poll numbers were already pretty high.

[Atman]

6. Right...this "it will help Bush" crap is just that ... crap.

There simply is no comparison between Bush and Clinton. None, except for that they're both Presidents. Bush is widely, world-widely, hated. Clinton was one of the most revered Presidents the nation's ever had and was loved around the world. Probably literally!

Bush committed real crimes which real people can really see. Clinton got a bj. Oh, they love to cry "it wasn't the bj, it was the LIE!" but then they don't seem to think Bush's LIES which have led to the deaths of thousands of US soldiers and over a million Iraqi civilians, are worth pursuing.

Bush is viewed as a smart-assed, smirking son of privilege, and a failure at everything he's ever touched, and a fake cowboy to boot. Clinton was viewed as a tough kid who grew up in bad circumstances and made a name for himself through hard work and determination.

Americans may be by-and-large stupid. But we're not THAT stupid. People are crying out for the impeachment of Bush...no one, save the Republican congressmen, were crying out for the impeachment of Clinton.

It's a totally bogus comparison.

.

[sandnsea]

5. rally round the wingnut

yeah, look at how the Jena march has brought out fellow lynchers. :crazy:

I had thought it was a bad idea to impeach so we could keep the war debate in the media. Since Democrats are going to let Republicans talk about stupid newspaper ads, we may as well go ahead with impeachment because we're obviously not going to talk about anything serious for the next year anyway. Maybe never again.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Half the country didn't vote for Bush in 2004. Only 64% of eligible voters cast a ballot. So

if Bush actually had 50.7% of the vote, only 32.4% of the people voted for him.