A day after Republicans in the House Rules Committee authorized Speaker John Boehner to move ahead with an unprecedented lawsuit against President Obama, a CNN poll reveals that a majority of Americans are against both the lawsuit and impeaching the president.
Republicans have pursued the strategy of punishing Obama at any cost, believing it will shore up support among their conservative base. Ironically they say the president should be sued because he has used his authority to make changes to Obamacare — which they have tried to repeal more than 50 times.
But the poll numbers indicate they may be hurting themselves in the larger scheme of things.
And even as Republicans like Sarah Palin say Obama should be impeached, they still have a hard time explaining why.
Only 35 percent of the 1,012 poll respondents were in favor of impeachment, with nearly two-thirds saying the president should not be removed from office. As could be expected, Republicans were more likely to support impeachment: 57 percent of Republicans said yes to impeachment, in addition to 35 percent of Independents and 13 percent of Democrats.
“Anti-impeachment sentiment is roughly where it was for past presidents—67 percent opposed Bill Clinton’s impeachment in September 1998, and 69 percent opposed impeaching George W. Bush when a few Democrats began talking about it in 2006,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “One reason may be that Americans take impeachment very seriously. Only about one in five say that impeachment is a valid response if Congress is dissatisfied with a president’s policies or the way he is handling his job. Nearly eight in 10 say impeachment should be reserved for high crimes and misdemeanors.”
As for the lawsuit against Obama, which House Republicans are expected to approve next week, 57 percent of Americans say no, while 41 percent are supportive of the idea. The breakdown is along partisan lines: 75 percent of Republicans are in favor of the lawsuit, compared to 43 percent of Independents and 12 percent of Democrats.
As far as regions of the country go, the South is the most supportive of the lawsuit at 45 percent, while the Northeast is the least supportive at 31 percent. The Midwest came in at 44 percent in favor of the lawsuit, while the West was at 40 percent.
“Too often over the past five years, the president has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold — at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the American people to stop him,” Boehner said in announcing his plans to sue Obama. “That’s why, later this month, we will bring legislation to the House floor that would authorize the House of Representatives to file suit in an effort to compel President Obama to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country. The president’s response: ‘So sue me.'”
The public does not appear to agree with Boehner’s assertion that the president has taken too much power. According to the poll, 45 percent agreed with the statement that Obama has gone too far, while 30 percent say his actions have been just right and 22 percent actually saying he hasn’t gone far enough—which has been a frequent complaint of liberals over the years.
