Home > Zogby poll: Majority of likely voters support considing impeachment

Zogby poll: Majority of likely voters support considing impeachment

by Open-Publishing - Friday 4 November 2005
18 comments

Edito Governments USA

by David Swanson

New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeachment;
ImpeachPAC is Launched to Support Pro-Impeachment Candidates

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.

The poll found that 53% 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 through impeachment."

42% disagreed, and 5% said they didn’t know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.

"These results are stunning," said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "A clear majority of Americans now supports President Bush’s impeachment if he lied about the war. This should send shock waves through the White House - and a wake-up call to Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who have sole power under the Constitution to impeach President Bush."

ImpeachPAC is Launched

In response to the latest poll results, Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, announced today the creation of a new political action committee called ImpeachPAC, headquartered at ImpeachPAC.org. ImpeachPAC will support Democratic candidates who support the immediate and simultaneous impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney for lying about Iraq. ImpeachPAC set a goal of raising $100,000 over the Internet to prove to President Bush, Congress, and the media that there is intense grassroots support for impeachment, as reflected in the new Zogby poll.

Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups

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%.

Support for Impeachment Has Surged Since June

The new Zogby poll shows a dramatic transformation in support for Bush’s impeachment since late June. (This is only the third 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 the identical statement asked about in this recent polling. This question was virtually identical to one used in early October by Ipsos Public Affairs, which found that 50% agreed and 44% disagreed that Congress should consider impeaching Bush if he did not tell the truth about his reasons for war.

Zogby
10/29-11/2 Ipsos
10/8-9 Zogby (LV)
6/27-29 Net Change
Jun-Nov
Support Impeachment 53% 50% 42% +11%
Oppose Impeachment 42% 44% 50% -8%
Impeachment Margin +11% +6% -8% +19%

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 11%, a remarkable shift of 19%.

If impeachment support continues to grow by 3% each month, it will reach 60% in January, 65% in March, and 70% in April.

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

The Zogby and Ipsos 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 those who support Bush’s impeachment for other reasons, such as his actions before and immediately after Hurricane Katrina, his negligence prior to 9-11, his use of torture, and the CIA outing scandal.

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. 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).

The passion of impeachment supporters is directly responsible for the new poll commissioned by After Downing Street. 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). People responded with small donations (on average $27) which quickly added up to over $10,000. After Downing Street has spent a portion of that money on the Ipsos Poll and the new Zogby Poll.

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 Memo 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. The Ipsos Public Affairs poll and the new Zogby poll results cited above refer to surveys of U.S. adults. The June Zogby results are from a survey of likely voters. The new Zogby poll produced results for both adults and likely voters (see footnote 3).

3. Here are the complete data tables from all three polls.

November Zogby: Adults, and Likely Voters.

October Ipsos: Adults, and definitions of regions.

June Zogby: Likely Voters.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?...

Forum posts

  • finally all the impeach groups can unite and become focused but mere impeachment is not enough ... we need REMOVAL .... a seperate action !!!
    noguns sheehan, santa cruz, ca.

    • In order to Impreach an President , the President must do something that warrents Impreachment that has happen nor will it happen. Made up phony Lies by an Bunch of wacko Liberals will not do the Job . The President will leave on the very sad day of Jan 20 2009 , replace by the 44th President an Republican who will kept the right policys of President Bush going.

    • What is truly sad is your overwhelming lack of intelligence, & your lack of manhood. Not knowing the difference between the truth and a lie, & this corrupt administration has given the world a mountain of lies, is a sign of person with dismal intellectual equipment, for anyone who wishes not to distinguish between the truth and a lie has very little regard for their own future & for their own self-preservation.
      A fool in a nutshell. Also the ability to distinguish between a truism and a falsehood is of primary importance to anyone who even pretends to uphold a moral standard of decency and honesty, two virtues that are of vital importance in leadership, two virtues which this failure of a man we have had the grave misfortune to have as our President, utterly lacks.
      Sir, if you don’t have the brains or the balls to confront the truth about this man and what he has done to our nation and the world, do the gracious thing and stay out of the debate, leave your comments at Moon Bat Central, or any of the other putrid blogospheres that cater to the intellectually deficient, where they belong.

      If this venal man is allowed to continue in power, it is extremely likely that America will falter economically, dropping us into a deep recession, even a depression, what with the enormous bubble that has been generated by over 30 years of government deficit spending, about to burst. You neocon simps have shown time and time again to the rest of the world a complete ignorance about economics, global or otherwise, so such things as enormous, untenable deficits go straight over your defective little heads, despite their obvious importance to our everyday common reality & despite their importance in keeping your tottering war machine fueled for your endless, hypocritical exportation of ’democracy’. Neocon simps who continue to support this administration, despite its many failures both here and abroad are starting to reveal to the world what I always thought they really were: Brainwashed, amoral simpletons. Over rated simpletons who will soon be footnotes in history.

      No matter, for the neocons will soon join their spiritual brethren, the Soviet communists and their millions of foolish followers, on the trash heap of history. All those millions in the former Soviet Union, who also confused love of country with love of the powerful who ruled over them, had shown the same pathetic weaknesses of moral vision and cowardice all the way up to their downfall, the same weaknesses of critical thought and morality that the typical American neocon supporter still displays without shame or remorse. I bid them all much better luck on the trash heap, where they belong.

    • For eight years the Nation was being run by the Republican Congress , from Jan 20 1993 to Jan 20 2001. The President never had any time to do his Job. The most corrupt Administration left on a very happy day of January 20 2001.The President will leave on January 20 2009 after having picked up more seats in both the House and the Senate in both 2006 and in 2008 . He will be replace by the 44th President who will be an Republican . If Gore had gotten away with stealing the 2000 election the Clinton recession would have became the Gore Depression , for Gore would have done the same as all Liberals have done in the past 60 years , and that is nothing. If the President had not done the right thing and gone to war with Iraq , Judgeing by the Democrats statements made in the late Ninety’s the war was long over due. What would the Liberals be saying now? They’d would be relentlessly bashing him for inaction in the face of overwhelming evidence, accusing him of mortgaging and lambasting him at every opportunity as a weakling and a coward. President Bush should know by now , that you cannot please Liberals Democrats who are the party of No Action , so he just does the right thing for the Nation as he has in the past and will up to the very sad day when he Leaves on January 20 2009.

    • Does anyone know what will happen when Bu$h’$ approval rating gets to .5%??? Can we hang him from the lamp post then after we torture him???

      Has everyone signed the impeachment petition, if not go to:

      VoteToImpeach.org

    • The father is George ("Wimp") Bush, the son is George ("Wuss") Bush. Wuss sees no problems until death slaps him in the face. Wimp told Wuss not to invade Iraq, predicting correctly what has been happening since we broke our word to our Armed Forces, never to put their lives on the line for a war when war was not necessary. Wuss ignored him. The rule has always been, we don’t go to war because we want to or because we can, we only go to war when there is no other choice.

      Wuss is a coward, a liar, and a thief. His father, Wimp, was mainly a liar and a thief.

      History, that thing that outs all secrets, eventually, may prove "our" (the majority of the American people) points, but we can’t wait that long. The evidence for impeachment is in front of the nation and the world, in the form of endless lies to the American people.

      Disgust is the only proper emotional response to this cabal, and no one will be able to save Wuss’s ass once he gets in front of a proper, independent judicial body. The world has already ruled on this, Wuss is guilty as a so-called President of committing fraud against the world, followed by the genocide of Iraqi civilians and and the same American citizens who followed his lead into Iraq, whose death numbers Wuss refuses to accurately report. This was all completely preventable, and that is what constitutes the fraud, or the lies, or whatever you wish to call it.

      IMPEACH the Wuss.

    • Wow, your vastly superior intelligence is evident from your thoughtful and inspiring prose. I used to love America, mom and apple pie, but now I can only think about 9-11 Conspiracies, the compassion of Islam and the injustice of Guantanamo imprisonment. Oh, and OIL, Rothschilds, and SKULL and BONES! Thanks for opening my eyes to all this neat stuff. I’ll see you at the pink-o rally and we can hurl obscenities at the Neocons and howl at the moon! Maybe you can show me your Michael Moore tattoo and I can show you a mole I have that looks kind of like Noam Chomsky.

    • Actually, Noam Chomsky does have a few moles, and each of them has more intelligence in their mitochondrial DNA than exists in your microbe-sized brain. Personally, I’m trying to stay in just good enough shape and with good enough visual acuity, that I’m hoping to be selected to captain the firing squad, for when Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie, Perle, and a few of the other chickenhawk draft-dodging, drug-abusing alcoholics get sentenced to death for crimes against humanity. I know Marine sharpshooters couldn’t find any brains or hearts in these subhumans, so I’d be the one to walk up with my fully locked and loaded sidearm and administer the coup de grace to the back of the head. The whole world knows that the chimp is mentally unstable, and certifiable. If your fingers are still connected to your brain, open up Google, and type these words into the search box:

      WORST PRESIDENT EVER

      Good searching, but it will be a short one, guaranteed.

    • 67, this son-of -a bitch set back reading an upside down goat story while 3000 or our fellow citizens were MURDERED. BUSH KNEW! WE KNOW! You can spin the famous ’conspircay theory’ words all you want. Ask FIFTY PERCENT of NEW Yorkers WHO KNOW! Ask why building 7 "FELL DOWN??? ASk why no jets intercepted when they could have EASILY? ASk why Cheney was doing a 9-11 style drill on the SAME DAY (yeah right!!!) etc. etc. etc. etc. ...... Wake the hell up!

      let me state it out for you plainly.

      BUSH HELPED MURDER 3000 of his OWN PEOPLE just like Saddam and MORE AND MORE PEOPLE KNOW EVERY DAY!!!

      It was an EXCUSE to get INTO Afghanistan and IRAQ a plan OPENLY stated by Project for a New(Nazi) Century. IT is for OIL! It is for Empire(bases) It is for Israel. And probably most inportantly it is for the BUSH/CHENEY CRIME FAMILY that cares ZERO about life and lives for MONEY and POWER!

      Visit Alex Jones at Infowars. DO some RESEARCH! Stop believeing in State sponsored conspiracy theories like some Arabs living in a cave somewhere came to America just happened to train in Jeb Bush’s state, learned to fly a sophisticated airliner into the fround floor of the most protected building on the planet, attacked a RECENTLY purchased high rise building by Silverstein (recently upped the insurance), where the security concerns were being managed by Bush’s other brother, where the Ex head investigator of the FBI that had been close to stopping the "terrorist" had been fired and put in cahrge of security ON THE DAY OF 9-11 (and was found dead in the debris) where a building numer 7 just "fell’ down after Silverstein saying he had to pull it, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc..............

      This has NOTHING TO DO with ’liberals’. Don’t you really give a sh’t about your country??? Are people so partisan they won’t even try to be objective.

      Sometimes I think these Anti-Christian Machiavellians are pushing for nothing less than CIVIL WAR, WE already have Vermont talking about getting the hell out of this Satanic Blood-Soaked Cabal of Crooks and Killers. Who’s gonna be next? Will the Bush/Cheney Fascists (and YES DEMOCRATIC SYNCOPHANTS) push so hard they will incite Americans to give them what they REALLY want__ Fuel to come in and set up the Dictatorship crushing any last vestigages of The American way. Are you and yours ready for a CIVIL WAR???????????????????????????????????

    • Wow, how do you type so well while masterbating? I can almost hear you flogging it, the way you describe your fantasy Bush execution.

    • your vastly superior intelligence is obvious from this "missive".

    • don t forget he actually lied, there were no weapons of "mass destruction". I would surprise me if you checked back.

    • YOU SUCK!! End of fucking story.

    • No, it is really sad how you guys react to a guy who only whats to pull your strings. Ignore the troll that divides people and that takes you off the topic at hand. Don’t narrow the scope of your examination.

      I know that guy let out some foul smelly air, but don’t focus on it. Don’t ponder over it. Just walk away. Set a few seats away from him.

    • BUSH LIED!!!
      http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Production/files/podhoretz1205advance.html

  • Any question of an impeachable offense is to be taken seriously. Our tendency to release politicos from responsibility due to an expectation of corruption is insidious.

    • Hey neocons go troll goarmy.com you pile of krap you are too stupid to understand www.reopen911.org and too closed minded and brainwashed from the FOX news media. Hey here’s an idea since your so pro Bush why don’t you enlist and support your draft dodger and coke head president. You know why you don’t enlist because your a f****in chicken hawk like this filth thats in DC.

    • Well at least many many people now are starting to see through the False Flag operations that both criminals within this administration as well as the Blair Fascists are using in a vain attempt at TOTAL CONTROL over The Citizens. These totalitarian power mad neo-CON murderers and thieves will stop at nothing it seems to enact their totalitarian vision of HELL right here on earth in the name of "security" for problems they themselves are causing. Wag The Dog!! THank God there were some in the British Gov. that had the intelligence and guts not to let BLair detain Britians for 90 days WITHOUT CARGE like this NAZI bastard wanted. IF the British aren’t careful AND also Americans they are gonna wake up one day in a PLANNED Police State having relinquished the very Freedom their forefathers and mothers paid for in BLOOD!!! STOP THE ATTEMPTED POWERE GRAB!!!

      FOx(FAUX) so called "news" (propaganda) is now touting the administrations solution to INDEPENDENCE! It’s called to Mark of The Beast or better known as verichip. This current (as well as past) administration wants to monitor and control citizens every move 24/7 and run your life for you in their Anti-Christ image. Are any Sheeple here ready to get their ear tag like other herd "animals"????

      Big Brother is Watching....