Fw: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Hersh" <mikehersh.com@verizon.net>
To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 2:25 PM
Subject: Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq

> http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3528
> For Immediate Release: October 11, 2005
> Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq
>
> By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans say that President Bush should be
> impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll
> commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that
> supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to
> invade Iraq in 2003.
>
> The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded
> non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on
> October 8-9.
>
> The poll found that 50% agreed with the statement:
>
> "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to
> war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by
> impeaching him."
>
> 44% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The
> poll has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.
>
> Those who agreed with the statement were also more passionate: 39%
> strongly agreed, while 30% strongly disagreed.
>
> "The results of this poll are truly astonishing," said
> AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "Bush's record-low
> approval ratings tell just half of the story, which is how much
> Americans oppose Bush's policies on Iraq and other issues. But this poll
> tells the other half of the story - that a solid plurality of Americans
> want Congress to consider removing Bush from the White House."
>
> Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups
>
> Responses varied by political party affiliation: 72% of Democrats
> favored impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of
Republicans.
>
> Responses also varied by age and income. Solid majorities of those under
> age 55 (54%), as well as those with household incomes below $50,000
> (57%), support impeachment.
>
> Majorities favored impeachment in the Northeast (53%), West (51%), and
> even the South (50%).
>
> Support for Impeachment Surged Since June
>
> The Ipsos poll shows a dramatic transformation in support for Bush's
> impeachment since late June. (This is only the second poll that has
> asked Americans about their support for impeaching Bush in 2005, despite
> his record-low approval ratings.) The Zogby poll conducted June 27-29 of
> 905 likely voters found that 42% agreed and 50% disagreed with a
> statement virtually identical to the one used by Ipsos.
>
>
> Ipsos 10/8-9
> Zogby 6/27-29
> Net Change
>
> Support Impeachment
> 50% 42% +8%
> Oppose Impeachment
> 44% 50% +6%
> Impeachment Margin
> +6% -8% +14%
>
> After the June poll, pollster John Zogby told the Washington Post that
> support for impeachment "was much higher than I expected." At the time,
> impeachment supporters trailed opponents by 8%. Now supporters outnumber
> opponents by 6%, a remarkable shift of 14%.
>
> Support for Clinton Impeachment Was Much Lower
>
> In August and September of 1998, 16 major polls asked about impeaching
> President Clinton (http://democrats.com/clinton-impeachment-polls). Only
> 36% supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported
> actual impeachment and removal. Even so, the impeachment debate
> dominated the news for months, and the Republican Congress impeached
> Clinton despite overwhelming public opposition.
>
> Impeachment Support is Closely Related to Belief that Bush Lied about Iraq
>
> Both the Ipsos and Zogby polls asked about support for impeachment if
> Bush lied about the reasons for war, rather than asking simply about
> support for impeachment. Pollsters predict that asking simply about
> impeachment without any context would produce a large number of "I don't
> know" responses. However, this may understate the percentage of
> Americans who favor Bush's impeachment for other reasons, such as his
> slow response to Hurricane Katrina, his policy on torture, soaring
> gasoline prices, or other concerns.
>
> Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact
> lie about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll
> found 52% of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately
> misled the public before the war," and 57% say the Bush administration
> "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed
> nuclear, chemical or biological weapons."
>
> Support for the war has dropped significantly since June, which suggests
> that the percentage of Americans who believe Bush lied about the war has
> increased.
>
> Passion for Impeachment is Major Unreported Story
>
> The strong support for impeachment found in this poll is especially
> surprising because the views of impeachment supporters are entirely
> absent from the broadcast and print media, and can only be found on the
> Internet and in street protests, including the large anti-war rally in
> Washington on September 24.
>
> The lack of coverage of impeachment support is due in part to the fact
> that not a single Democrat in Congress has called for impeachment,
> despite considerable grassroots activism by groups like Democrats.com
> (http://democrats.com/impeach).
>
> "We will, no doubt, see an increase in activism following this poll,"
> said David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org. "But will we
> see an increase in media coverage? The media are waiting for action in
> Congress. Apparently it's easier to find and interview one of the 535
> members of Congress than it is to locate a representative of the half of
> the country that wants the President impeached if he lied about the war.
> The media already accepts that Bush did lie about the war. We know
> this because so many editors and pundits told us that the Downing Street
> Memo was 'old news.' What we need now is journalism befitting a
> democracy, journalism that goes out and asks people what they really
> think about their government, especially George Bush."
>
> The passion of impeachment supporters is directly responsible for the
> Ipsos poll. After the Zogby poll in June, activists led by Democrats.com
> urged all of the major polling organizations to include an impeachment
> question in their upcoming polls. But none of the polling organizations
> were willing to do so for free, so on September 30,
> AfterDowningStreet.org posted a request for donations to fund paid polls
> (http://afterdowningstreet.org/polling). As of October 10, 330
> individuals had contributed $8,919 in small donations averaging $27 each.
>
> AfterDowningStreet.org has commissioned a second poll which is expected
> soon, and will continue to urge all polling organizations to include the
> impeachment question in their regular polls. If they do not,
> AfterDowningStreet.org will continue to commission regular impeachment
> polls.
>
> Footnotes:
>
> 1. AfterDowningStreet.org is a rapidly growing coalition of veterans'
> groups, peace groups, and political activist groups that was created on
> May 26, 2005, following the publication of the Downing Street Memos in
> London's Sunday Times on May 1. The coalition is urging Congress to
> begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush committed
> impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.
>
> 2.Here are the complete tables from the Ipsos poll, plus the definitions
> of regions used by Ipsos and the U.S. Census Bureau.
>
> 3. Zogby asked: "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his
> reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him
> accountable by impeaching him through impeachment."
>
> 4. Pollsters have offered various reasons for refusing to poll on
> impeachment. For example, Gallup said it would do so "if, and when,
> there is some discussion of that possibility by congressional leaders,
> and/or if commentators begin discussing it in the news media."
>
> LINK TO THIS RELEASE:
> http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3528
>
>
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> -- Mike
>
>
> Mike Hersh
>
> - MikeHersh.com - http://www.mikehersh.com
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