“Swept into the Senate and House”? Sheesh. The senate would have otherwise been a 50-50 tie except that some Coleman dweeb trounced Wellstone – who died in a plane crash in late October. And 229-204 hardly seems to me to be a sweeping majority in light of the mandate that Bush had from just 14 months prior. Pretty weak sauce, TYVM.
From the perspective of an Obama supporter who would like to see the Electoral College eliminated, I think this could be a great scenario. Republicans will turn against the Electoral College, and enough Republican leaning states will pass the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (hitherto only endorsed by several Democratic leaning states) to allow it to go into effect, which will effectively neuter the Electoral College. Future presidential candidates will then try to appeal to voters in all states, instead of only caring about voters in Ohio.
You’re being very optimistic and overlooking the difficulty of turning outrage into political action at the state level. Everybody was sure the 2000 elections would bring about a concerted and serious effort to improve the state of voting systems and procedures all around the country, and it didn’t.
The National Popular Vote Intiative is fine, but I hope they have a plan B if the national popular vote is close. The nation isn’t going to do a recount for 20-odd states.
I think a better approach would be for all states to award their EVs proportionally.
While my initial impulse is say “Great!” my second thought worries about the consequences: Who can afford to compete in all markets at once? Only the deepest SuperPac pockets. It’s like that enough already, I can barely imagine it worse.
If Romney wins the popular vote and Obama wins in the EC, it would be the best thing to happen ever.
One, for gloating reasons, and going “neener neener” at all the partisans who think that Democrats were the biggest whiners ever in 2000 because of what happened (which has way more to do with the indefensible Supreme Court ruling than the Electoral College itself. Seriously, Bush v Gore is widely considered one of the worst supreme court decisions ever made).
The other reason being that maybe we would finally have the political will to get rid of the electoral college through an amendment. But that’s unlikely.
Mostly I would love it just for the gloating.
Not me, I plan to be generous, warm and understanding. They hate that.
Not me, nor any Republican I know. I was in favor of the Electoral College before 2000, but erroneously thought that if any future President lost the popular vote but won the electoral college that reform would be swift. It hasn’t been, and it shouldn’t be.
2000 was a great example. Bush lost the popular vote by a mere .5% but he won 30 states to Gore’s 20. In my mind the 30-20 is more important than a .5%. If Obama pulls off the same thing, I will kick myself in the nuts, but accept the result as just.
Should we start getting into crazy scenarios where one party wins New York and California with 90% of the vote, wins the popular vote by 15 points, but still loses the electoral college…it still works. The EC encourages broad-based coalitions among all regions of the country. No running up the vote totals where everyone likes you. Reach across the aisle, if you will. It wasn’t what the founders intended, but it works very well IMHO.