A new poll released by Public Policy Polling Wednesday introduced some surprising numbers.
Thirty-five percent of Republicans said that they would support impeaching Obama for his actions so far, though there is no indication of what specific "actions" they think could potentially merit impeachment. Twenty percent of all respondents were in favor of impeachment.
"I'm not clear exactly what 'high crimes and misdemeanors' they are using to justify that position but there may be a certain segment of voters on both the right and the left these days that simply think the President doing things they don't agree with is grounds for removal from office," said pollster Tom Jensen. Dave Weigel notes that a lot of the opposition to Obama has included rhetoric about supposed violations of the Constitution.
In addition, 44% of voters said they'd rather have George W. Bush back in the White House. That percentage is strangely higher than Bush's approval rating over the majority of his second term. Guess you don't know what you got 'til it's gone.
The highly contentious issues in the air -- health care reform, war, climate change -- are bound to prompt disagreement and discontentment that could trigger some odd responses. According to a survey taken in late September, 42% of Republicans did not believe that Obama was born in the United States:
"42 percent of Republicans believe that President Obama was not born in the United States, while 22 percent still remain uncertain of his birthplace origin. On the flip side, the poll also finds that 25 percent of Democrats believe that George W. Bush intentionally allowed the September 11th attacks to occur to serve as a catalyst for a war in the Middle East."
Any way you look at it, it seems that the large percentage of Republicans who feel resentment toward Barack Obama for whatever reason don't seem to be changing course. Luckily for everyone else, The 22nd Amendment keeps Bush from being reelected, and "because I don't like him" won't hold up as appropriate grounds for impeachment.