Poll: 68 percent of Republicans say Obama should be impeached

WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- About one-third of U.S. adults and 68 percent of Republicans agree with Sarah Palin that President Obama deserves impeachment, a new poll found.

The split along partisan lines in the new Huffington Post/YouGov poll was stark. While 68 percent of Republicans said impeachment would be justified, only 8 percent of Democrats agreed and independents were evenly split 37 percent on each side.

Just over one quarter, 26 percent, of respondents who did not describe themselves as Republicans called for impeachment.

The numbers in the poll released Monday are similar to those found by Gallup in 2007 about President George W. Bush.

Thirty-six percent of respondents told Gallup that Congress had enough evidence to begin impeachment proceedings against Bush. That included 58 percent of Democrats, 35 percent of independents and only 9 percent of Republicans.

The impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998 was marked by a similar partisan split. Clinton was the only president other than Andrew Johnson in the turbulent era after the Civil War to be tried by the Senate, although both survived.

The poll found that overall, 44 percent said Congress would not be justified in impeachment, 35 percent said it would and the rest were not sure.

Almost half, 49 percent, of respondents told the HuffPost/YouGov poll that Obama has gone beyond the limits of his authority set by the Constitution, 34 percent disagreed. That included 89 percent of Republicans, 52 percent of independents and 16 percent of Democrats.

The poll was conducted from July 9 to July 11 among 1,000 members of YouGov's opt-in online panel.