Posted on 07/11/2014 8:39:01 AM PDT by kristinn
I agree with Palin that impeachment is the constitutional solution, and I agree that the notion of the Congress suing the President over doing his job is stupid.
However, impeachment will never succeed. Even if the House had the votes the Senate would never convict, just like with Clinton. All it would end up doing is energizing the Democrats and demonizing the Republicans. We’d be doing what we always accuse the Republicans of doing. Finding a way to lose. Trying to impeach Obama is stupid too.
So then you're not happy that Clinton was impeached?
No mention in your comment about impeachment energizing the Republican base and demonizing the Democrats.
Your comment is (using your word) "stupid".
Actually with Joe Biden, everyone knows what they are getting. He does not try to be something he is not. Obama came out of a white woman's womb, yet claims he is black. Everything about Obama is a lie.
Some of us have been calling for his impeachment ever since he stole the reelection. The only reason the left wing nuts are talking about it now, is because Palin called for it. They know Palin represents a bridge between moderate Republicans and hard core conservatives. She was after all selected by McCain to be his vice President. So the moderate Republicans will at least consider her thoughts.
Because that's a fantasy. That wouldn't be the outcome of the huge PR battle going into an impeachment vote and the subsequent refusal of the Senate to convict.
Because that's a fantasy. That wouldn't be the outcome of the huge PR battle going into an impeachment vote and the subsequent refusal of the Senate to convict.
Not thinking that impeachment would energize the base is your fantasy. Sure it would
And thinking that you can win over the mindless undecideds by playing nice is also your fantasy.
We won two presidential elections after impeaching Clinton. We lost two presidential elections by playing nice with Obama.
The 1998 midterm elections, which should have seen Republican gains just like this year, instead produced significant losses to the point Speaker Gingrich resigned.
That's not to say Clinton didn't deserve impeachment, or even that it was the wrong thing to do, but losing that battle did not help Republicans and doing the same again now will be even worse. There is no chance that Obama is going to be removed from office by the Senate. None. There is no way that making and losing at that attempt will help Republicans. That's reality.
The House Republicans won 226 seats and the Democrats won 207 seats in 1998.
So they won 19 more seats that the Democrats, they impeached Clinton and you think that's a problem?
I don't.
Yes, it was a problem. You are using absolute numbers. How many seats did they hold before the election? That's what matters. In case you are too young to remember 1998 for yourself:
"With the GOP having lost 5 House seats and failing to gain any seats in the Senate, it was the first time since 1934 that the non-presidential party failed to gain congressional seats in a mid-term election. It was also the first time since 1822 that the non-presidential party had failed to gain seats in the mid-term election of a President's second term."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1998
Yes, it was a problem. You are using absolute numbers. How many seats did they hold before the election? That's what matters. In case you are too young to remember 1998 for yourself:
Congressional elections are every two years. "Absolute" numbers are the reality.
The Republicans in the House had their second best election since 1948 after they impeached Bill Clinton.
That's the reality.
Do you understand?
They lost seats in a year they should have won. Pretty simple stuff. Read my prior post.
It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the an impeachment fight will energize the Democrat base. In an election year when they are demoralized and the Republican base is already energized, there’s no way that comes out in our favor. Given that the attempt is doomed to fail, it is obviously a self-defeating move. Again, pretty simple stuff. I can’t keep trying to explain to someone too stubborn to realize it.
Many of US aren’t paying attention to the media. But the mushy middle that actually decides elections DO. We tried to impeach Clinton, not only did we fail to get conviction it played poorly enough with the middle that the Dems actually managed to be the first party of the sitting president to gain seat in the second midterm in 100 years. Which put us on a path to have no useful majority when Bush won the presidency. An impeachment, especially an impeachment you already KNOW is going to fail (there’s simply no path to 67 senate votes) is a waste of time and energy that poisons the party in the eyes of the middle and give fuel to the other side. The federal government is a numbers game, a smart party works the numbers.
The Clinton impeachment didn’t energize the GOP or demonize the Dems, it cost the GOP the midterms. Sorry but recent history shows how this works, and trying to impeach Obama is stupid, especially because we’re only 16 years removed from seeing EXACTLY how this will play out.
I was for it at the time, but it wound up a bad joke, even though Dingy Harry was in the minority at the time.
The Senate's makeup at the time was 55 Republicans and 45 Democrats. To have removed Clinton on either charge would have required all the Republicans plus 12 defecting 'Rats. Didn't happen. In the event, ten RINOs defected on the perjury charge, and five on the obstruction charge. See the Wikipedia's nice sortable, color-coded vote list.
Billy Jeff's approval rating at the time was 70+%. Perhaps if it had been down in the thirties, we might have got the necessary defections.
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