I'm stunned!

from American Chronicle, found on Zogby International:

By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush 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 Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,200 U.S. adults from October 29 through November 2.

I knew that the President's numbers were falling (his latest approval rating stands at 37%, thanks in part to a 2% approval among African Americans and especially to Republicans beginning to register their disapproval). Still, this impeachment number caught me by surprise. More Dems, obviously, supported the question; the younger a person is, the more likely they are to be in favor of impeachment; and ethnic and religious minorities also are more likely to be in favor of impeachment. Geographically, the breakdown shows support is fairly widespread - belying the notion that this is a "left coast," elitist, or otherwise liberal attack:

Responses to the Zogby poll varied by political party affiliation: 76% of Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 50% of Independents and 29% of Republicans.

Responses also varied by age, sex, race, and religion. 70% of those 18-29 favored impeachment, 51% of those 31-49, 50% of those 50-64, and 42% of those over 65. 56% of women favored impeachment, compared to 49% of men. Among African Americans, 90% favored impeachment, compared to 67% of Hispanics, and 46% of whites. Majorities of Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Others favored impeachment, while 49% of Protestants and 46% of Born Again Christians did so.

Majorities favored impeachment in the East (53%), West (56%), and Central states (58%), but not the South (43%). In large cities, 58% support impeachment; in small cities, 56%; in suburbs, 49%; in rural areas, 46%.

For comparison's sake, the author looked back at polls conducted around the question of whether Clinton should be impeached.

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.

It should be no surprise that support for impeaching Clinton was always relatively weak. The Republicans, however, led by a few nuts with a fixation on getting Clinton out of office, managed to keep such an option before the public for months. (For an excellent book on this subject, written by someone who was on the ground floor to the hype and scandal-mongering, see David Brock's Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.) I can't help but wonder where the "liberal" media is now? Hmm. Maybe they're not so liberal after all.

The overarching question is: Did Bush lie? How you answer that determines whether or not you support impeachment, and whether or not the Congress ought to follow up on this matter. (It also reveals how well you've been paying attention.)

Happy Elections Day! Time for me to go vote!