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George F. Will column: The president who knew too little about the Electoral College
The Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | May 2, 2018 | George F. Will

Posted on 05/04/2018 6:41:25 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Among the recent garbled effusions from today’s temporary president — cheer up; they are all temporary — was one that concerned something about which he might not have thought as deeply as the subject merits. During an episode of government of, by, and for “Fox & Friends,” he said: He won the 2016 election “easily” but wishes the electoral vote system were replaced by direct election of presidents by popular vote. He favors this “because” — if you were expecting him to offer reasons drawn from political philosophy or constitutional theory, grow up — “to me, it’s much easier to win the popular vote.”

He added, accidentally stubbing his toe on a truth, that running for president without the Electoral College would involve “a totally different campaign.” Which, he does not realize, is one reason for retaining the Electoral College.

The president’s interest in all this comes from his festering grievance about losing the popular vote by five times more votes than George W. Bush lost it to Al Gore in 2000. His thinking is as murky as his syntax, but evidently he supposes that under a pure popular-vote system he would have campaigned in, say, indigo California, thereby reducing his opponent’s huge margin of victory there (30 points). Perhaps. But his California campaigning might have increased her turnout, which was probably reduced by the lack of campaigning there. Who knows?

This we do know: Presidential majorities are built by the Electoral College as it has evolved, adapting to the two-party system. The Electoral College gives the parties a distribution incentive for achieving geographical and ideological breadth while assembling a coalition of states . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at richmond.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 10thamendment; 17thamendment; 2018election; 2020election; democracy; election2018; election2020; elections; electoralcollege; faithlesselectors; federalism; nationalpopularvote; npv; popularvote; states; trump
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Will is being intentionally obtuse.

If Trump gets peace in Korea, Will no doubt will attack Trump for starving N. Korean children.


61 posted on 05/04/2018 9:33:44 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Amazing that people pay for this drivel.


62 posted on 05/04/2018 9:43:10 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: TomGuy

Exactly.


63 posted on 05/04/2018 9:45:55 AM PDT by Tallguy
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Lil' bow tie georgie, like his beloved cubs, gets it right once every 108 years.

georgie, ESAD.

64 posted on 05/04/2018 10:43:22 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Kill all mooselimb, terrorist savages, with extreme prejudice! Deus Vult!)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

George F. Will says Hrumpff.

Clinton had millions of fraudulent votes and George knows this.


65 posted on 05/04/2018 11:47:42 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Trump skillfully calculated the particular states, that were right leaning, and able to return enough electoral votes to get him elected. He didn’t spend a lot of time campaigning in “blue states”, or states that are dyed-in-the-wool democrat states.

I think he played it very smart, and did a great campaign.

And, dems like it or not, Trump won.


66 posted on 05/04/2018 11:58:54 AM PDT by FrankR (If it wasn't for stupid ideas, the left would have no ideas at all.)
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To: Raycpa
And you have the ability to explain it. YOU should have George Will's column.
67 posted on 05/04/2018 12:05:09 PM PDT by donna (Noah Karvelis, Arizona teacher leading strike, is inspired by the Frankfurt School/Marxismxi)
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To: campaignPete R-CT; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj; Galactic Overlord-In-Chief; AuH2ORepublican

The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario uses an electoral college (informally called “points” by the media) to choose it’s leader. I think this is the same system used by the Federal Conservative Party.

Doug Ford was elected on the final ballot (they use a preferential ballots to eliminate under there is a majority winner) despite the fact his opponent won both the popular vote and the majority of ridings (parliamentary districts).

Each riding where at least 100 people voted (which was all but 3 sparsely populated heavily non-conservative ridings, in those the number of votes you get = your number of points) gets 100 votes, awarded by percentage, eg you get 56 points for 56%.

Ford won cause of his high popularity in his home base, were he pulled down high percentages in area ridings.


68 posted on 05/04/2018 8:57:03 PM PDT by Impy (I have no virtue to signal.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Among the recent garbled effusions from today’s temporary president...”

WTF


69 posted on 05/05/2018 9:23:32 AM PDT by JPJones (More tariffs, less income tax.)
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