We are extremely pleased to announce the launch of a new polling partnership between the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Daily Kos, which will run through the 2012 election cycle. Starting today, Daily Kos’ weekly poll is now the Daily Kos/SEIU Weekly State of the Nation Poll by Public Policy Polling. Through this partnership, DK and SEIU will jointly conduct issue and horserace polling around national issues and in key electoral states and races.
First up in our inaugurual joint poll is an issue that Newt Gingrich recently thrust back into the spotlight: impeachment. Newt induced flashbacks to his disastrous tenure as Speaker of the House in the 1990s by suggesting that President Obama could be impeached for his decision to order the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court. So we asked respondents:
Would you support or oppose the impeachment of President Obama?
The results: 59% said they would oppose impeachment, 26% said they support impeachment, and 14% said they're unsure. Republicans support impeachment by a 48-31 margin, a number which Tom Jensen, our pollster, points out is almost identical to the 51% of Republicans (PDF) who think Obama was not born in the United States. Says Tom, "The lunatic fringe of the GOP is basically half of the party’s voters" - in which case, it's really not a "fringe," is it?
Strangely enough, our survey also showed that 14% of Democrats say they do, too (78% are opposed). That last finding struck us as quite unexpected, so Tom ran an additional crosstab. We learned that among those who claim they support impeaching Obama, 11% approve of his job performance! Like peanut butter and mayonnaise, these two things clearly do not go together. Our only explanation is that some portion of voters simply aren't familiar with the term "impeachment" actually means.
Ultimately, though, the Republican results show just how radical the party has become, and just how extreme its candidates will have to act, whether at the presidential level or further down the ballot. With a base this far removed from the mainstream, Republicans are going to have a difficult time demonstrating much crossover appeal to the rest of America - good news, of course, for Democrats.