Reply #78: USA Today/Gallup Poll. July 6-8, 2007: 36% FOR impeachment; 62% NO impeachment

[Mabus]

The actual question was:

2. As you may know, impeachment is the first step in the constitutional process for removing a president from office, in which possible crimes are investigated and charges are made. Do you think there is or is not justification for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush at this time?

2007 Jul 6-8
Yes, is 36
No, is not 62
No opinion 3

MOE +/- 3%

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-07-09-bush-poll-results_N.htm

I don't know if you remember or not but back in May of this year (2 short months ago) there were complaints that polling companies wouldn't ask about impeachment. Here are some sample headlines from the After Downing Street website.

June 2007: Harris does online poll on impeachment but does not publish results.

June 14, 2007: CNN's polling director comments on impeaching Cheney, but has done no poll.

June 4, 2007: American Research Group refuses to poll, even for money.

May 30, 2007: Harris refuses to poll on impeachment, even for money.

May 29, 2007: Ipsos refuses to poll on impeachment, even for money.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/polling

So, can you point me to a reliable poll showing that the majority of Americans wanted to impeach Bush that was contemporaneous to the when Gore was interviewed? Otherwise, Gore was correct when he said there was "no consensus in the nation as a whole to support such a proposition" he was correct. If he had said there was a consensus he would have been attacked by the political media as "making things up."

I did find a poll asking about impeachment back on June 30th that was conducted by Zogby. The results were 42% in favor of impeachment (if Bush lied about Iraq) and 50% were against it. (MOE +/ 3%) Below are the comments from which I got these figures. And, if you think about it, Gore's early June statement is mirrored in Zogby's comments especially in regards to no consensus across America. As you would expect, some areas are more supportive of impeachment than others.

Impeachment Question Shows Bitterness of Divide

In a sign of the continuing partisan division of the nation, more than two-in-five (42%) voters say that, if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment. While half (50%) of respondents do not hold this view, supporters of impeachment outweigh opponents in some parts of the country.

Among those living in the Western states, a 52% majority favors Congress using the impeachment mechanism while just 41% are opposed; in Eastern states, 49% are in favor and 45% opposed. In the South, meanwhile, impeachment is opposed by three-in-five voters (60%) and supported by just one-in-three (34%); in the Central/Great Lakes region, 52% are opposed and 38% in favor.

Impeachment is overwhelmingly rejected in the Red States—just 36% say they agree Congress should use it if the President is found to have lied on Iraq, while 55% reject this view; in the “Blue States” that voted for Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry in 2004, meanwhile, a plurality of 48% favors such proceedings while 45% are opposed.

A large majority of Democrats (59%) say they agree that the President should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, while just three-in-ten (30%) disagree. Among President Bush’s fellow Republicans, a full one-in-four (25%) indicate they would favor impeaching the President under these circumstances, while seven-in-ten (70%) do not. Independents are more closely divided, with 43% favoring impeachment and 49% opposed.

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1007