Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution says the following about impeachment: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. The House of Representatives has the sole power to impeach and the Senate the sole power to convict.



Impeachment

It is pretty certain that Republicans in the House could gather the votes to impeach. It is just as certain that it would not be possible to get 67 votes for conviction in Senate.



Sarah Palin kicked off the impeachment headlines earlier this month when she penned a column calling for it. But to date, most senior Republicans have shied away from that call. House Speaker John Boehner is proceeding with a lawsuit against the president over alleged abuse of executive power, but is against impeachment.



Still, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La. has not taken impeachment off the table. Connected with Boehner’s lawsuit and we have a needless issue that Republicans are creating for themselves where they cannot win.



Of The People, By the People, For The People

According to Rasmussen, 32% favor impeachment of President Obama while 58% oppose it with 10% undecided. By comparison, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, in July 2007, 39% favored impeachment while 49% opposed.



Voters believe it would be bad for the United States if some members of Congress seek to impeach Obama 52-26, and think it would be bad for the GOP 56-24. They also say electing an opposition Congress is the better way for opponents to halt or change the president’s policies than impeachment 55-15. Only 12% favor lawsuits challenging the president’s actions like the ones House Speaker John Boehner is now championing.



While 61% agree that people who oppose the president’s policies do so primarily because they believe the policies are bad, not because of racism, 28% now believe that opposition is due to racism, up from 18% in October 2011 and 24% in November of last year.



Don’t Be Dumb

Talks of impeaching the President are absurd. We’ve had two presidents impeached (Johnson and Clinton whom I will cover in A Retrospective on American Bitching), and neither were convicted in the Senate. Bill Clinton’s impeachment has resulted in him being the most popular politician in the world, so those that want to somehow stain Obama’s legacy should keep that in mind.



Impeachment is a political solution, not a criminal one. While some may feel that Benghazi, Fast and Furious, The IRS, The VA, and the border are criminal acts that Obama himself is responsible for, most people do not.



What we know is that people feel, as I do, that change has to be enacted at the ballot box. What this talk does is allow Democrats to continue to expand upon the narrative of opposition to the president being based on race, and it is working.



This Democrat wants to see a Democratic House and Senate. While the former is unlikely, the latter can be put into play due to incompetent electoral strategy. Republican brass is doing a fair job of muting impeachment talk but unless they have a clear and unified message that impeachment is off the table, they are presenting themselves with a losing campaign issue that need not be one.



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