Posted on 02/03/2012 6:35:28 AM PST by raccoonradio
The headline news item on Drudge report says "RASMUSSEN: Obama 45% Romney 45%... Developing... "
What I'm wondering is why is this significant overall, because...what about the electoral college? Obama could just barely beat Romney or Gingrich in the popular vote, yet lose the election. Just ask "President Gore".
"Gore Got More" was one of the sayings, and he did.
According to Wikipedia, Al Gore got 50,999,897 votes. 48.4 per cent. Bush got 50,546,002 votes or 47.9 per cent.
If this country elected a President on popular votes, Gore would have been sworn in on 1/20/01. But we use electoral votes. Wiki. said Bush won 30 states. Gore won 20 states plus D.C. (Obama is probably wondering how the other 7 states voted.)
No wonder they argue for a "National Popular Vote" on the Left.
Anyway, you see polls like this but isn't what matters the state-by-state vote?
"The election was noteworthy for a controversy over the awarding of Florida's 25 electoral votes, the subsequent recount process in that state, and the unusual event of the winning candidate having received fewer popular votes than the runner-up," says Wikipedia.
And as I like to point out, Gore COULD have won by electoral vote if he had ONE more state, one won by Bush.
His home state of Tennessee. Bush won 271 EV, Gore 266. If Tenn. went for Gore it would have been Gore 277, Bush 260.
Electoral college...what really should matter in these polls. Yes, popular vote is a good indication of how the race is going, but not the only one.
True story: The Bee Gees had never been to the Bay State but liked the sound of the word/place name they had heard ABOUT. And that’s why the lights...all went out...in Massachusetts...
Very good point, there. The Left though would rather make it a purely popular vote—they don’t want another Gore scenario.
But yes, popular vote winner likely wins the EV too and indeed the ‘00 election was razor close.
1968 was razor close too
Nixon R 31,783,783
Humphrey D 31,271,839
Wallace Amer. Independent 9,901,118
States won: Nixon 32, Humphrey 15, Wallace 5 (in the
SouthEast)
Nixon 43.4 per cent
Humph. 42.7 per cent
Wallace 13.5 %
One faithless elector from NC voted for Wallace not Nixon
Total electoral votes:
Nixon 301
Humph. 191
Wallace 46
It didn’t seem close if you look at elec. votes, but note
how close it was in popular vote. What if Wallace were
not in the race? Anyway, pop. vote margin win by about
500,000 or so for Nixon. Close.
Orastam said:
>>he must be the president of the Union, not just a majority of Americans.
Libs in gereral have a problem with federalism
Right you are.
fieldmarshaldj:
Indeed, re: Tenn. (Gore really from D.C.)
>>when he held his “victory party” outside here in Nashville’s downtown, we had a rare November thunderstorm that evening.
Ah. In 05 I spent a day or so in Nashville area and walked around the general area of the Capitol bldg—Jackon and Johnson monuments, etc. I thought this was where they all gathered for what was to be the Gore victory party (in 04, a big crowd gathered in Boston for what was to be Kerry’s
victory party, complete with a broadcast by then-Air America talker Al Franken. An article from CNS News
Online: “Kerry party turns to tears, bitterness”...
Wikipedia entry on Tenn.: “In the 2000 presidential election, Vice President Al Gore, a former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, failed to carry his home state (sic; as you say, he was more from D.C.), an unusual occurrence”.
W won it 51 to 47 per cent.
Flip Massachusetts (could happen) and your map is 269-269. Throw in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado and it could be interesting. If the Electoral College cannot decide, the House selects the president, each STATE delegation getting exactly one vote.
One of the reason they want a national popular vote is because they want to nationalize vote fraud. Vote fraud is most prevalent in states the Democrats are likely to carry anyway, so another 2000 votes in a ballot box in Philadelphia do not cancel votes cast in New Hampshire or Alabama. With a national popular vote, they would.
The compact only applies, as I understand it, if it is adopted by enough states such that their total electoral votes constitute a majority of the electoral college. Hasn’t happened yet.
you’re exactly right. thanks for cleaning that up for us.
At the present time, it is infested by "Occupy Nashville" vermin round the clock, for whom are being protected by an ultraliberal Democrat federal judge. State legislators are working to get a bill through to clean the scum off the plaza.
Except Willard won’t win MA. If McCain couldn’t carry those other states, Willard certainly won’t.
I can’t fathom why Fred Thompson is pimping this. It is precisely what the Founding Fathers wanted to guard against... that being direct democracy. Voter fraud in the cities would reach immense proportions if it were to be enacted.
And never will...
Romney can’t win MA. I speculate he could crack into the low 40’s but that’s it. I mean the dude didn’t run for reelection cause he was gonna lose even if he stayed the RINO course (he wanted to move right to run for President), and even to Deval Patrick!
I don’t see why Romney would do any worse than the last RINO, McPain, and McPain would win if they redid that election today. Obama’s unpopularity and the poor economy means any Republican not named Ron Paul COULD win.
He’d have a leg up in New Hampshire and I’ve seen a poll where he lead Obama in his original home state, Michigan where his daddy was Governor. I’m not so sure why the GOP shouldn’t be favored in lily white Iowa either.
This will be close a election unless someone falls on their face.
Agreed. NH doesn’t have many EVs but can be part of a bunch of smaller (in pop.) states that could be added up for
a GOP victory
Very good point. Calif., Penn. (voter intimidation in Philly
in ‘08, while I think of it). Have illegal aliens vote,
or union members going to the polling place and giving the
name and address of someone who recently died (see the
James O’Keefe experiment in N.H.). Here in the Bay State
one could peruse the obituaries of your home town and give
the address and name of someone who just passed on but hadn’t been removed from the rolls yet. If it’s someone fairly obscure, you could get away with it. Again see what happened
in N.H. (in one or two cases though someone did recognize
the name)
Obviously Romney can’t win MA. He would run marginally better than other Republicans there, but that won’t do us any good.
For now, we need to focus on preventing Romney from winning a majority of delegates. I don’t think that Newt Gingrich can do that alone. Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, Rick Santorum isn’t siphoning a lot of votes away from Gingrich. Most of his votes come from people who find both Romney and Gingrich unacceptable.
I live in Boxboro, population about 5,000. The odds that that someone at the poll knows the deceased are high.
“Earth Pimps” PING!
I now live in Beverly, pop. 38,000 or so, but grew up in Nahant with about 3,900 people. Same case—people in Nahant
would have known I was pulling a fast one.
Thanks raccoonradio.
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