General Discussion

I was expecting four GOP votes to convict, maybe five tops. The House Managers' strategy ended up getting seven. It's quite possible that extending the process indefinitely would have gotten us zero, and maybe even lost some Dem votes. It's also highly unlikely that any of the 43 senators who voted to acquit would have changed their minds, since they were basing their acquittal on a "process" fig leaf, not on the facts.

It's also possible that while the usual talking heads are now doing their, "Did Democrats make a mistake not calling witnesses?" thing, there's an alternate universe where witnesses were called, the GOP turned the entire thing into a massive circus by calling hundreds of irrelevant witnesses, badly gummed up the process, and as the trial drags on and on the talking heads are now asking "Did Democrats make a mistake by calling witnesses?"

Trump was impeached twice, and of the four presidential impeachments in US history, his are the only ones to have received any bipartisan votes for conviction -- one the first time and seven the second time. The House Managers clearly established his guilt. He's not barred from running for future office, but I think November 2020 represented his peak, and he still lost. The base loves him, but to everyone else he is completely radioactive. And that's before any further criminal and civil actions against him kick in.

He is the Republican Party's problem now, and I'm fine with that.