ping
Your post is really hanging it out there, but it is compelling to say the least. That said, I think if Hillary had the power and pull to craft such a scenario, she would already be president for life.
Your post--and article--are highly overrought, but it is, sadly, true under our current winner-take-all electoral college system (at least where 3d party presidential candidates are concerned). The electoral college should be maintained, no question about that. But, to enhance the growth of third parties capable of breaking the suffocating \\\"vanilla vs vanilla\\\" contests we have every 4 years, we in the conservative movement should push for true proportionalization of the EC. Put simply, in a state with 10 electoral votes, the pres. candidate with 60 percent of the vote gets 6 votes, 30 percent gets 3 EVs, and the candiated with 10 percent gets 1 EV. Why would this be an improvement over our current system?
1. It gives conservative voters in true-blue states like NY, RI, MA a reason to get out of bed on election day.
2. It prevents false mandates (Clinton in 1992 only gets 43 percent of popular vote but an EC \\\"landslide\\\").
3. Regarding third-paries, a proportional EC gives third-party candiates--and votes--a reason for being. Let\\\'s say we had a proportional EC as of today. Assume \\\"hildabeast\\\" is the dem candidate in 2008 and George Allen is the GOP candiate (just to give the candidates names). A proportional environment would encourage third parties to break from the \\\"demopublicans\\\". Most likely a predominately Black party would form from the dems, perhaps with Jesse as its candiate. Perhaps a paleocon, nativist party would spin off the GOP, with Pat at the helm. Neither Hillary or Allen gets the magic 270 EVs. Though Jesse and Pat may have less than 2 doz EVs between them, they have powerful leverage over Hillary and Allen respectively, saying in effect, \\\"I\\\'ll give you my EVs to get you over 270, but you MUST pledge the following ...\\\"
Thus, small third parties are given real power in this scenario, power beyond their size.
But, If Hillary doesn't get the DemocRAT nomination, she might be the nominee of Unity '08.
I have been thinking about this theory and Gov. Wallace's aborted run.
