It looks bad for Bill Clinton -- his denials aren't convincing the American people. In a new TIME-CNN poll, a majority believe all the allegations in the Monica Lewinsky affair are true (57 percent). Fewer think the charges are true and worth investigating (49 percent), but the President's approval rating has also started to slip, dropping 7 points since last week.
Most seriously, a majority (63 percent) of people polled think the President should be impeached if it's proven he had the affair and obstructed justice by leaning on Lewinsky to lie about it. No surprise, a vast majority of Republicans (78 percent) would support impeachment in that case. But it's startling that half the members of Clinton's own party would too.
If it turns out he didn't do anything illegal, Americans are less concerned about Clinton's private-part peccadillos. A relatively low number (35 percent) think impeachment is necessary if Clinton had the affair but didn't make Lewinsky lie under oath. On the other hand, the fact that one-third of the nation thinks extramarital sex by itself is worth kicking the President out of office indicates how offensive America would find the affair if true.