"In this instance, Pelosi's normally acute political judgment is failing her.."

[NewJeffCT]

78. she mentioned in the past

that Clinton's approval ratings went up following impeachment.

However, that is a casual reading of the numbers.

The actual impeachment vote in the House was in the 1998 lame duck session in December of 1998. Prior to the vote, Clinton conducted a 4 day long bombardment of Iraq that was very popular with the general public. The impeachment vote and the bombing campaign led to a one week 10 point bump in his approval ratings - low 60s approval to low 70s approval. This is partly what Pelosi is talking about

However, his approvals quickly went back down to his "normal" range, which was remarkably consistent for the 6-7 months before December 1998 - 63% to 66%

The impeachment trial in the Senate was February of 1999 and that led to a 5 point bump when Clinton was acquitted.

Those two events are what Pelosi is talking about.

However, if you look at the aftermath, by March of 1999, Clinton was back down to his normal pre impeachment approval ratings and then by April of 1999, he was into the upper 50s, and for the entire rest of 1999, he never topped 60% approval. So, he was down a good 5-7% for the remainder of 1999.

Because of this drop in approval ratings, the mainstream media told Al Gore that he had to distance himself from the morally tainted Bill Clinton. Gore followed the advice of the MSM and also picked boring straight arrow Joe Lieberman as his VP candidate in hopes of further distancing himself from Clinton.

So, 18 months after Clinton was acquitted by the Senate, the Republicans and lightweight Bush were close enough to the much more qualified Al Gore to steal the election.