<p>What a difference 28 days makes.</p><p>On Dec. 18, House Democrats rushed to impeach President Donald Trump on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, with chief prosecutor Adam Schiff actually calling him a "clear and present danger" to the nation. Speed was of the essence, they told us. So critical, in fact, that the very security of the nation depended on it.</p><p>There wasn’t time to call people who Democrats now say are essential witnesses and to fight the president’s likely claim of executive privilege in court. There wasn’t time to allow the president’s legal team to participate in the hearings or give Republican members the ability to call their own witnesses. Democrats were in such a hurry, they said there wasn’t time to go to court and resolve the constitutional conflict between the executive and legislative branches.</p><p>So instead, they blamed the president, redefined a common executive-legislative branch conflict as criminal and created a new, precedent-free article of impeachment.</p><p>And so they voted to impeach the president and promptly headed home for the Christmas break that left the nation in the so-called peril of the Trump presidency for 28 days.</p><p>But while Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat on the articles of impeachment for a month, the world has, apparently, decided that the "imminent" threat another 11 months of Donald Trump in the Oval Office poses isn’t quite as imminent or as dire as Democrats would have you believe.</p><p>In fact, in contrast to the Democrats’ overwrought warnings, the world continued to turn, the sun came up every morning, and more than a few positives have characterized the last 28 days.</p><p>On Dec. 19, the long-awaited United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement passed the House by a vote of 385-41 after languishing on Pelosi’s desk for more than a year. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, hardly a Trump supporter, called its passage a "huge win for working people in North America."</p><p>On Dec. 20, pigs flew as a CNN Business analysis reported, "As 2019 winds down, the economy is getting its best rating in almost 20 years. Overall, 76% of those polled rate the economy very or somewhat good, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. That’s up nine points from last year and the highest percentage since February 2001."</p><p>It closed on a rarely seen positive CNN report on Trump by saying, "For markets, Trump’s impeachment is a non-event. … For now, the economy is clearly advantage-Trump."</p><p>Last week, the Dow hit another 52-week high, reaching 29,054.16.</p><p>Of course, those 28 days weren’t without challenges; but for a nation whose national security, Democrats contend, is under constant threat from a "clear and present danger" named Trump, the past month belied their argument.</p><p>In her speech on the House floor before the impeachment vote, Pelosi said, "It’s tragic the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice."</p><p>Democrats have always had a choice. They chose to pass impeachment suddenly, only to later claim that without further witness testimony, the Senate trial would have no credibility.</p><p>Pelosi chose to demand that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell do the job she should have done. It was a gamble she lost.</p><p><em>David Winston is the president of The Winston Group and a longtime adviser to congressional Republicans. He previously served as the director of planning for Speaker Newt Gingrich. He advises Fortune 100 companies, foundations, and nonprofit organizations on strategic planning and public policy issues, and is an election analyst for CBS News.</em></p>
