# New poll: Majority of Americans support impeachment **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978 "2006-01-14T17:17:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/41 "2006-01-17T12:05:56Z")
If in fact Bush is guilty of illegal wiretapping and its clearly shown in due process… would impeachment be the expected punishment at all ? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/42 "2006-01-17T15:18:32Z")
**mswas** - an excellent book on statistics for the layperson is [The Cartoon Guide to Statistics](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062731025/qid=1137510991/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9926271-6931057?n=507846&s=books&v=glance). One night’s read, and the authors build up everything from “the ground.” ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/43 "2006-01-17T16:23:32Z")
**mswas** , I want to chime in and try to assure you that among folks who have studied statistics, deriving a margin of error from a sample size comprising less than 0.001% of a population, under the appropriate circumstances, is no more controversial than deriving a mean by adding scores together and dividing by the number of scores. Pollsters do need to be careful to select their sample from a broad demographic, but assuming they succeed in doing so, their methodology is uncontroversial among mathematicians. I agree with **Bricker** : the poll is poorly phrased. Furthermore, nobody’s pointed out that the poll was commissioned by [After Downing Street](http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/), an organization described in that press release as "a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. Zogby may be impartial, but the group that asked for the poll is not; and the group reporting on the poll’s results is not. **jsgoddess** appears to have taken the thread’s title from the title of the [Democrats.org](http://Democrats.org) webpage (right?)–while I disagree with it, the fault lies with [democrats.org](http://democrats.org), not with **jsgoddess**. I fully support impeaching Bush. Assuming that [afterdowningstreet.org](http://afterdowningstreet.org) is not a bunch of pants-on-fireists, there’s [a very interesting speech by Al Gore](http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/6827) on their website. > [@Al Gore](#): > > What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently. > > A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: “The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men.” > > An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” And so forth. It’s a very interesting read. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/44 "2006-01-17T17:11:38Z")
> [@Rashak Mani](#): > > If in fact Bush is guilty of illegal wiretapping and its clearly shown in due process… would impeachment be the expected punishment at all ? Whether he could be criminally prosecuted in the regular courts, while still sitting as president, is controversial. As is the question of whether he would, if convicted, retain the power to pardon himself. See this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=338902](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=338902) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/45 "2006-01-17T17:13:40Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Assuming that [afterdowningstreet.org](http://afterdowningstreet.org) is not a bunch of pants-on-fireists, there’s [a very interesting speech by Al Gore](http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/6827) on their website. Now under discussion in this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=354458](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=354458) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/46 "2006-01-17T17:17:24Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > **mswas** , I want to chime in and try to assure you that among folks who have studied statistics, deriving a margin of error from a sample size comprising less than 0.001% of a population, under the appropriate circumstances, is no more controversial than deriving a mean by adding scores together and dividing by the number of scores. Pollsters do need to be careful to select their sample from a broad demographic, but assuming they succeed in doing so, their methodology is uncontroversial among mathematicians. But if you’re not careful – or even if you are – somebody might try to spin the results as “liberal media bias.” See this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353128](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353128) ---
**Author:** ![Rashak\_Mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rashak\_Mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rashak_Mani)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978/47 "2006-01-18T12:09:09Z")
One can but wonder where was this fiesty Al Gore in 2000… ☹ Well if Bush does get impeached I’ll buy a round of beer for everyone on this thread ! Two if they handcuff him ! 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-poll-majority-of-americans-support-impeachment/339978.md?page=2)