Obama cannot be for impeachment at this stage into his candidacy.

[Smith_3]

Frankly, I think impeachment should have happened right after the dems gained the majority in congress. I think all excuses given by them are utter bullshit and the real reason why they don't want to rock any boats is because they are afraid that they might be dragged under as well, when it comes to the discussion of what part THEY actually played in allowing this whole clusterfuck to happen.

However, I do agree that at this point it is strategically impossible for Barack Obama to run a candidacy and push for impeachment at the same time. He would be seen by many, and certainly be portrayed by the media, as trying to force himself into office and that will very likely create huge backlash.

For him, it is the much safer route to let the present popularity that he undoubdedly has, despite all the attempts to smear him, to do its work. I can't say that I blame him for that. Strategically it is probably the right thing to do.

[notadmblnd]

1. and I suppose that it's strategically correct to vote to pass FISA too?

[TNOE]

2. For now.

He's a brilliant campaigner - and a brilliant campaigner. We don't yet know the end-game - and I believe there is one.

[ben_meyers]

4. Kind of like Nixon's secret plan to end the Viet Nam war?

Just trust me, I'll fix it when I'm elected.

[elocs]

10. If Obama is not elected, guess who is? I'll take my chances with Obama. n/t

[Smith_3]

3. In a two party system, unfortunately yes.

Election reform is overdue.

[dysfunctional press]

5. i can grok to that...HOWEVER- if he gets elected and then says the country has to "move past it"...

i will NOT be a happy camper.

[DangerDave921]

6. Nor can any sane person

Give it up already! The guy will be gone in a few months. What is possibly to be gained by impeachment? It really is tilting at windmills.

IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN. Repeat that to yourself every morning if it helps you calm down.

If Impeachment was such a great idea for the party, don't you think HRC or Obama would have floated it? It will not resonate with mainstream voters. So it is off the table.

[Smith_3]

7. I know its not gonna happen. Still, if Bush starts a war with Iran we will be sorry.

I think the time for impeachment was 2006 and it was deliberately missed.

[DangerDave921]

9. Yup

Now maybe if GW had gotten a big wet hummer, it would have been a different story.

[polmaven]

14. Do you really think

that, without any way to secure enough votes to remove him from office, impeachment would have been a good idea?

In my opinion, acquittal in the Senate would have made this idiot feel vindicated and even more empowered than he feels now, and THAT would have made him even WORSE!

[elocs]

11. Agreed, but that notion will not fly far here.

At DU there is very little connection between reality and impeachment. I expect heads will explode next January when it hasn't happened.

[KharmaTrain]

8. He's Facing Reality

Again...the votes aren't there...and he knows that such a trial would be a major distraction, the corporate media would turn this into a circus of personalities rather than truth (and we know whose bed they sleep in) and any vote would be like an acquittal.

Right now maybe some good anger isn't such a bad thing...and one that could force justice in the future. Today, 34 years ago (damn I feel ancient), Nixon was forced to resign and shortly thereafter was pardoned. People couldn't get away from Watergate fast enough...Ford claimed the "long national nightmare is over" and that was that. Investigations stopped and a whole cadre of undercrooks like Karl Rove saw another day to play. I'm one who wants a full accounting of this regime and this includes war crimes...and I also know we have just scratched the surface of this regime's criminality. It hides behind a wall of "Executive Privilidge" that prevents any real investigating and this regime will come up with other obstructions...the law means nothing to them. Best they are kept in check and once they're gone then we really begin to figure out what really happened.

I'm more concern that Senator Obama pledges to put his full support behind all the existing investigations and to appoint an Independent Prosecutor to begin to unravel all the crimes. Thus maybe some anger and frustration is not a bad thing right now...it can be used to remove Repugnican obstructionists in November, then put pressure, should Obama win, to demand no whitewashing...and calling for a full accounting of this regime's many abuses...outside the shadows of pardons and obstructions.

[pinto]

15. Good point.

[onenote]

12. when the Democrats gained the majority in Congress

they did so after elections involving all 435 congressional seats and 1/3 of the Senate. Tell me, in how many of those elections was impeachment raised as an issue? And where it was raised, how many times did the candidate raising it win? We all know the answer: next to never and next to never.

If impeachment had been a winning strategy -- put the repub on the spot and all that -- it would've been raised as an issue. But it wasn't raised, even by some of the most progressive Democrats running. And, as a result, if the Democratic majority, having been elected in a series of contests that turned largely on unhappiness with repub incompetence (Katrina and the war) and repub scandal (abramoff, foley), had made impeachment a top priority, they would've been skewered for it.

And they would've lost. Because if the Democrats can't stop a bad FISA bill in 2008, they sure as hell didn't have the votes to start an impeachment inquiry in 2006.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. Politics as usual is not change. It's politics as usual.

Pathetic.