Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If
He Lied about Iraq
Downing Street.org/Ipsos Public Affairs
October 11,2005
NOTE WELL: The After Downing Street Coalition hired Ipsos to
do this poll. Ipsos did not sponsor the poll, but was very helpful,
cooperative, and professional. Please do NOT complain to them that they did not
do the poll for free. If you feel you must communicate with them, please thank
them for being helpful.
For Immediate Release: October 11, 2005
Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about
Iraq
By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching
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 Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded
non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October
6-9.
The poll found that 50% 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 by impeaching
him."
44% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll
has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.
Among those who felt strongly either way, 39% strongly agreed, while 30%
strongly disagreed.
"The results of this poll are truly astonishing," said
AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "Bush's record-low approval
ratings tell just half of the story, which is how much Americans oppose Bush's
policies on Iraq and other issues. But this poll tells the other half of the
story - that a solid plurality of Americans want Congress to consider removing
Bush from the White House."
Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups
Responses varied by political party affiliation: 72% of Democrats favored
impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of Republicans.
Responses also varied by age and income. Solid majorities of those under age
55 (54%), as well as those with household incomes below $50,000 (57%), support
impeachment.
Majorities favored impeachment in the Northeast (53%), West (51%), and even
the South (50%).
Support for Impeachment Surged Since June
|
Ipsos 10/8-9 |
Zogby 6/27-29 |
Net Change |
Support Impeachment |
50% |
42% |
+8% |
Oppose Impeachment |
44% |
50% |
+6% |
Impeachment Margin |
+6% |
-8% |
+14% |
The Ipsos poll shows a dramatic transformation in support for Bush's
impeachment since late June. (This is only the second 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 a statement virtually
identical to the one used by Ipsos Public Affairs. (see footnote below)
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 6%, a remarkable shift of 14%.
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
Both the Ipsos and Zogby 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 the percentage of Americans who favor Bush's
impeachment for other reasons, such as his slow response to Hurricane Katrina,
his policy on torture, soaring gasoline prices, or other concerns.
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, including the large anti-war rally in Washington on September
24.
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).
"We will, no doubt, see an increase in activism following this poll," said
David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org. "But will we see an
increase in media coverage? The media are waiting for action in Congress.
Apparently it's easier to find and interview one of the 535 members of
Congress than it is to locate a representative of the half of the country that
wants the President impeached if he lied about the war. The media already
accepts that Bush did lie about the war. We know this because so many
editors and pundits told us that the Downing Street Memo was 'old news.'
What we need now is journalism befitting a democracy, journalism that
goes out and asks people what they really think about their government,
especially George Bush."
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). As of October 10, 330 individuals had
contributed $8,919 in small donations averaging $27 each.
AfterDowningStreet.org has commissioned a second poll which is expected
soon, and will continue to urge all polling organizations to include the
impeachment question in their regular polls. If they do not,
AfterDowningStreet.org will continue to commission regular impeachment
polls.
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 Memos 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.Here are the complete tables from the Ipsos Public Affairs poll, plus the
definitions of regions used by Ipsos and the U.S. Census Bureau.
3. Zogby asked: "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons
for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by
impeaching him through impeachment."
4. Pollsters have offered various reasons for refusing to poll on
impeachment. For example, Gallup said it would do so "if, and when, there is
some discussion of that possibility by congressional leaders, and/or if
commentators begin discussing it in the news media."
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