Trump

Donald Trump is double-dog daring the Democrats to impeach him. It’s a brilliant PR strategy and his best shot at winning re-election.

He tweeted on April 21.

How do you impeach a Republican president for a crime that was committed by the Democrats? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

And followed up April 22 with:

Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can’t impeach. It was the Democrats that committed the crimes, not your Republican president. Tables are finally turning on the Witch Hunt!

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released April 19 (after Mueller’s report dropped) shows Trump’s approval ratings dropped three points to 37 percent.

The president’s approval rating was 43 percent just before the March 24 release of attorney general Bill Barr's four-page summary of the Mueller Report that gave the president a “clean bill of health.” It was a total whitewash.

Trump’s approval rating is bound to sink over the next few weeks as the Democrats gear up various inquiries into his administration.

Impeachment proceedings are Trump’s ace in the hole. With the Republicans in control of the Senate, there’s no way the president is going to be booted from office.

Following impeachment by the Democrat-controlled House, a Senate trial would be manna from heaven for the president.

President Clinton’s approval numbers soared ten points to 73 percent after the House approved two articles of impeachment against him in 1998.

A bonus for Clinton, impeachment backfired on his political opponents. Following the House vote, unfavorable ratings of the Republican party jumped ten points, with less than a third (31 percent) of Americans holding a favorable view of the GOP.

Trump, a master of playing the role of martyr, will milk impeachment for all it's worth.

As Maureen Dowd so colorfully put it in the April 21 New York Times.

“The spoiled scion of Fifth Avenue somehow always finds a way to be aggrieved, a victim of the media, the deep state, 'dirty cops,' note-taking aides and the elites — all out to get him.”

Democrats face a lot of pressure from the party’s progressive base to punish Trump for the more than 180 pages of the Mueller Report detailing evidence that the president obstructed justice.

Anti-Trump firebrands won't be satisfied with a House censure, impeachment-lite, of Trump, a recommendation put forth by some media pundits. That won't satisfy the anti-Trump firebrands.

Bring it on, says Trump of impeachment proceedings. Impeachment hearings are his ticket to another term and a total loser for Democrats.

Democratic leadership must resist The Resistance and focus on the 2020 election as the best way to unseat the president.