# How weird would this be (Romney/Biden) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 23, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674 "2012-10-23T22:54:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/21 "2012-10-24T18:36:54Z")
Could the Senate select Palin just to get back at Mitt? Or does it have to be someone who got electoral college votes? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/22 "2012-10-24T18:46:33Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Could the Senate select Palin just to get back at Mitt? Or does it have to be someone who got electoral college votes? Has to be one of the top two VP candidates. The House gets to pick from three for President, allowing a single faithless elector to make a third candidate eligible. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/23 "2012-10-24T18:54:19Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Has to be one of the top two VP candidates. The House gets to pick from three for President, allowing a single faithless elector to make a third candidate eligible. Wouldn’t that be hilarious? A single faithless elector votes for some other republican, and the house decides they like him more than Mitt, so they all vote for the new guy :D. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/24 "2012-10-24T18:54:51Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > (plus its an easy paycheck for Biden, who IIRC was relatively poor, by Senator standards anyways) IIRC he began with nothing but managed to accumulate a few million over his years in the Senate. > [@Marley23](#): > > A 269-269 tie and a split ticket is almost always theoretically possible. I always find this kind of idle speculation in the news media annoying. Real issues go uncovered, but people find time to write about this wacky stuff. There’s a lot written in the media about all sorts of pointless things of amusing interest, and this interests a lot of people. And it’s actually a lot more likely in this election than it was in prior elections. If Romney wins all the states in which he is currently favored on RCP, plus FL, VA, CO, IA & NV (all tossups) he gets 269. Could easily happen. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/25 "2012-10-24T19:00:11Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > There’s a lot written in the media about all sorts of pointless things of amusing interest, and this interests a lot of people. > > And it’s actually a lot more likely in this election than it was in prior elections. It’s been more likely the last three or four elections than in a lot of previous ones. The odds are still very much against it, so the possibility gets more attention than it deserves based on the weirdness factor. (And yes, the Internet is big, so people put a lot of thought into obscure possibilities.) What would really happen? I suspect Biden would be very, very bored for the next four years. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/26 "2012-10-24T19:36:56Z")
Most simulations put the probability of this happening at about 1%. That makes sense intuitively; either candidate could plausibly end up with between 220 and 320 EV’s so 269-269 represents one outcome out of a hundred. That sounds like a lot until you realize it means one tie election every 400 years, even if every election is as close as this one. I wouldn’t get too excited or worried (depending on your POV) about it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/27 "2012-10-31T13:38:11Z")
If the EV votes tie, as I understand it, the Senate elects the VP and the House the President. So America would end up with Romney as President and Biden as VP. How would America deal with it? Would Biden politely retire after a short stint? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/28 "2012-10-31T14:51:57Z")
Biden would have no more reason to retire than Romney would. They were both constitutionally elected to their job. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/29 "2012-10-31T15:07:31Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Would Biden politely retire after a short stint? Why would he? VP is still a paying gig and either he can get no duties from Romney and get paid to sit on the couch and wait for a pretzel-choking or else he can get paid to visit state funerals and wait on a pretzel-choking. Could you imagine if Biden stepped down and Romney was somehow incapacitated the next day after Ryan was sworn in? Hoo-boy. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/30 "2012-10-31T15:11:30Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Would Biden politely retire after a short stint? That’d be giving up a vote in the Senate, right? Even if casting the tie-breaking Senate vote is literally his only duty for four years, I can’t imagine him giving it up. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/31 "2012-10-31T15:22:07Z")
I’d say that the job of VP would become infinitely more important than it is now and that Biden would be a fool to resign from the position. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/32 "2012-10-31T15:23:48Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > If the EV votes tie, as I understand it, the Senate elects the VP and the House the President. So America would end up with Romney as President and Biden as VP. > > How would America deal with it? Would Biden politely retire after a short stint? Merged this into a thread from last week on the same topic. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/33 "2012-10-31T15:43:28Z")
Nate Silver has it likelier that Obama will win the popular vote, and lose the electoral college (2.1%) than an electoral college tie (0.4%). Put it another way: No one thinks Obama will win the popular vote and lost the electoral college, and yet statistically speaking as of right now, that scenario is more than 5 times as likely to happen than an electoral tie. A tie ain’t happening. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674/34 "2012-11-01T00:13:04Z")
> [@HurricaneDitka](#): > > I guess there’s that. I should’ve said that I don’t see any _net_ upside: I think Biden would make at least as good a president as Bush or Ford. > [@](#): > > I imagine it’d make him look like a power-hungry prick that didn’t have the good sense to concede when his side lost and his do-anything-for-power attitude left us with a disfunctional executive branch to most Americans, but who knows … You realize that this process is in the constitution right? Why do you hate the constitution? And in what way can the VP make the executive branch dysfunctional (or make much of a difference at all, well I guess there was Cheney). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-weird-would-this-be-romney-biden/638674.md?page=1)