Reply #133: That is NOT what I said [View All]

[karynnj]

The fact though is that ratings were all over the place and depended on what was asked. The job approval numbers included some in the range you speak of, both the "favorable/unfavorable" question had far lower numbers - some significantly below 50%. Some taken at almost the same time that are far higher. I suspect there were differences in how the question was actually asked as the variability was greater than I have usually seen. ( I looked at pollingreport.com years ago)

The point I was making was that had Gore become a sitting President, he likely would have become more popular as he became better known. Because Gore was more introverted than a Clinton or Bush 2 (or Edwards, for that matter), that could have made an enormous difference. Many things that are virtues are liabilities in a political campaign.

What I didn't say was that I never thought of Clinton stepping down in 1998 or 1999 and I would bet that there is no way that Clinton, Gore or people around them ever thought of it seriously and they possibly didn't think of it at all. This is all hindsight - at least in my case - because we know how history worked out. I likely should NOT have gone on that tangent because the point was that she was not saying that impeachment was right.