At this point in the four-year U.S. presidential election cycle, the 2020 election is President Donald Trump¡¯s to lose. In parallel, the race to be the Democratic Party¡¯s presidential candidate is Sen. Bernie Sanders¡¯ to lose.

Meanwhile the trauma inflicted on the country by the ill-advised impeachment drive has injected the poison of partisan, scorched-earth opposition even deeper into the American body politic, when the existing level of divisiveness had already rendered Washington a highly dysfunctional seat of government.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was right in her initial judgment a year ago that impeachment was not advisable without compelling reasons backed by overwhelming evidence and bipartisan support. Not one of the three criteria was met.