Romney v Obama – A Potential Crisis In The Making!
I know the election is still a few month off, but there is something on the horizon that no one is talking about, a gigantic California sized fly in the ointment, as it were – it’s the push for electoral college reform, and what this election might mean for that movement.
Before I go on, let me state the blindingly obvious – President Obama is going to CRUSH Mitt Romney out here in California. There is absolutely no question about it. It’s as sure a bet as any in politics.
Now that that is out of the way….
The election is a mere four months away. Seeing that the poll numbers for both candidates have been fairly static, and neither has yet to pull out a big lead, either Mitt Romney or Barrack Obama could win the popular vote, more than likely on a small margin. At this point at last, I’ve seen most of the analysis of the electoral vote favoring the incumbent. This means, if everything stays the same – ceteris paribus – there is a decent chance that election could mirror the 2000 election, where the winner of the electoral vote did not get the majority of the popular vote.
Meanwhile, there has been a movement afoot in the form of the National Popular Vote bill, which would in certain instances nullify the electoral college nullify the popular vote within each state. The idea is that, if one candidate wins the national popular vote but loses the electoral vote in any state that has signed on to the agreement, that state would nullify the will of the voters in that state and cast its electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote en toto.
Yes, Rachel. It IS a horrible idea. And, of course, just about a year ago California signed on to this folly. It was appealing to many in this liberal state because of the Bush / Gore debacle of 2000, where the favored liberal won the popular vote but lost the electoral college (and please, lets not get into the stolen election fallacy, as Gore would have lost the electoral vote had the count continued in the way he wanted). But, what the Democrat politicians of this state didn’t think about, it appears, is what would happen if if the party affiliation were reversed! And the election of 2012 might just bring that result, with Obama winning the electoral vote but Romney winning the national popular vote!
Can you imagine the uproar in this strange state if the Democrat Obama had his overwhelming electoral victory in California nullified by this law and instead the state handed over to the despised EVIL gay hating Romney????
If the Topsy-Turvy election result do come to pass in this election, and Romney wins the popular vote but loses the electoral count, expect California to divert all money from the high speed rail project in order to build a time machine and undo this bit of foolishness on their part.