It would hand him the election. They’d paint it as Republican/Tea Party racism. My worry is that he won’t go peacefully if he’s beaten in the 2012 election (see Bush vs. Gore X10) or will cause riots and rebellion.
“It would hand him the election. They’d paint it as Republican/Tea Party racism. My worry is that he won’t go peacefully if he’s beaten in the 2012 election (see Bush vs. Gore X10) or will cause riots and rebellion.”
I have to disagree with you - I don’t think by any means impeachment would hand him the election, not with his poll numbers dropping and Democrats also calling for his impeachment. Plus, it would let the case be put before the American public, all those Americans who actually care about rule of law, and there are still some out there not already on side.
Those canards mean less and less, and are only as powerful as the fear induced in the people they’re used against - the thugs in Wisconsin, by Democratic anti-tea party logic, would have to be considered more racist than the tea partiers then.
Threats of riots and rebellion shouldn’t be dissuasive. That was the implicit threat of not electing him in 2008; it will again be the implicit, or even explicit, threat in 2012, or around his impeachment. We might as well choose our own time and place to face them down and overcome them, since we have to at some time anyway. If you’re worried about him not going in 2012 of his own volition, even if voted out, you’re making a better argument to impeach him now than I ever could.