Free Republic

Obamarx 210 / McCain/ (b/) Palin(/b) 200

Barack Obama 275 John McCain 263

This November, a Democratic victory will probably hinge on the Electoral College votes of a handful of swing states. Howard Dean's pollster examines 17 fall battlegrounds, one by one. Thanks to John Adams and James Madison, an American presidential election really does begin and end with the Electoral College. Didn't 2000 tell us that? (Well, it ended with Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor, but you get the drift.) Critics scoff and call it an antiquated and unfair system (it is). Many Democrats -- notably, this year, Obama backers -- would like their party to stop thinking in terms of...

In the latest Rasmussen Poll, an unnamed Democrat leads an unnamed Republican in the Electoral College count, 264 to 229 votes, with 45 votes considered tossups. While neither party can claim the 270 votes needed for the presidency, at this point in time, it looks like a Democrat will move into the White House on January 20th. Not so fast. First and foremost, the race in November will not be unnamed versus unnamed, but rather Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama versus John McCain. Second, despite what the pundits are saying (this is a Democratic year and the GOP is toast,...

Local GOP preparing for big choice By: SUNANA BATRA - For the North County Times A frequent commentator on politics, and the manager of John McCain's 2000 campaign for president, Mike Murphy's keynote speech at the Lincoln Club of San Diego County's annual dinner last week was witty, insightful and, at times, cutting. "San Diego has always been the spark plug in California and holds an important role nationally," he said. He spoke of the new ground California will break on Feb. 5, when we will hold our presidential primary. Murphy suggested that since we will have the most compressed...

What do you do if you can't carry state? Try to hijack 20 Electoral College votes -- A dangerous ballot measure that could hijack the presidential election is back in play.Once again signatures are being gathered to qualify a Republican-backed initiative that would rig the way California's electoral votes are counted and, as a result, possibly decide who is elected president of the United States in 2008.No candidate has claimed responsibility for the initiative, but there are some obvious fingerprints on the initiative drive. Paul Singer, a Wall Street hedge fund manager with close ties to GOP presidential candidate Rudy...

Inland Rep. Darrell Issa is throwing his political clout and significant financial support behind a state ballot initiative to change the way California's electoral votes are cast in presidential elections -- a measure some say could decide the next president. The wealthy congressman, who single-handedly jumpstarted the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis, said Tuesday he has agreed to support the measure both financially and by providing access to his own fundraising network, including his substantial e-mail lists. Issa, R-Vista, declined to say how much money he would give, describing his contribution as fluid. Dave Gilliard, a Republican consultant with...

Beware, California voters, of emasculation -- according to Howard Dean. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee came out swinging today against Monday's news of a new campaign to qualify the initiative changing how California's electoral votes are awarded. And just like the first time the initiative surfaced, he blamed it squarely on Republicans in general, and GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in particular. The initiative, said Dean, is "an opportunity for the Republicans to neuter California, to take away California's role as the most powerful state in the country when it comes to selecting the president." Dean and state...

In the bluest of blue of California's Democratic congressional districts, long-frustrated Republican voters are suddenly and decidedly relevant. That's because in 2008 the Republican Party will scrap its traditional statewide winner-take-all California presidential primary. Instead, the GOP will select the vast majority of California presidential delegates based on who wins in each of the state's 53 separate congressional districts, including 34 held by Democrats and 19 by Republicans. California Republican Party chairman Ron Nehring said the change is an attempt to open up America's most populous state to district-by-district contests he hopes will put candidates in closer touch with voters.

Los Angeles (AP) -- Democrats determined to block a California ballot proposal that could help elect a Republican president in 2008 are launching radio ads to urge voters to snub what they call a "partisan power grab," campaign officials said Thursday. The 60-second ads, to begin running in Los Angeles and Sacramento on Friday, say the plan to change the way the state's electoral votes are awarded in presidential contests would deplete the state's clout in Washington while helping elect a Republican who would extend the Iraq war. "Help stop this scheme. Dividing California's electoral votes only hurts Californians," one...

A new book by David Horowitz and Richard Poe has enraged the Left and alarmed many conservatives. It exposes the machinations of a radical clique working at the highest levels of government and finance to undermine American power. That book is The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party. It hit the New York Times bestseller list in its first week in print. Here to tell us about The Shadow Partyis co-author Richard Poe, our esteemed colleague at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where he serves as director of research. Mr....

egislators are weighing changes to a system that gives too much influence to voters in battleground states at the expense of voters elsewhere. We hope never to live through another election like 2000, when it took 35 days and a U.S. Supreme Court decision to settle the presidency. The ordeal shined a spotlight on the Electoral College system and its most prominent quirk - that a candidate who wins the popular vote can be forced to stand by while a rival takes the oath of office.

Time Waits for No One On Friday we noted that the Census Bureau has released new population projections through 2030, which largely show that states George W. Bush carried in 2000 and 2004 are expected to grow faster than those his opponents won. Blogger Steven Jens has run the numbers and figured out how these estimates, if they prove accurate, will affect the apportionment of congressional seats and electoral votes. This table shows the effect of the projected change on the first presidential election after the 2010, 2020 and 2030 censuses, assuming that each party's candidate carries the same states...

[snip]two Republican state legislators are trying to change the status quo by ending California's winner-take-all system and replacing it with one that would award electoral votes proportionate to the popular votes received. Candidates would get one electoral vote for each of the state's 53 congressional districts they carried. The final two votes--those representing the state's two senators --would be awarded to the candidate who garnered the most votes statewide.[snip]