Posted on 05/08/2007 8:49:25 AM PDT by TheBethsterNH
Dean on Electoral College System: ‘Get Rid of It' By John P. Gregg Valley News Staff Writer Hanover -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean yesterday said he favors replacing the Electoral College system with a tally whereby American presidents are elected by the popular vote.
“I think it's outlived its usefulness,” Dean said in response to a question on the subject during a talk to a government class at Dartmouth College. “It was an invention for a time 200 years ago. I think that times have changed and we ought to get rid of it, one way or the other.”
The Maryland Legislature last month approved a plan that would direct its 10 electoral votes to be cast for the winner of the national popular vote, rather than the victor in Maryland. The plan, however, would take effect only if states forming a majority of the country's 538 electoral votes followed suit.
Several smaller, rural states have historically voiced support for the present system, which was established in the Constitution, saying it allows them to retain an important role in presidential elections. Presidential campaigns must devote attention to small swing states such as West Virginia or New Hampshire, which has just 4 electoral votes, under the current system. Only two presidents have been elected without winning the popular vote, notably George W. Bush in the bitterly contested 2000 election.
“I'm torn about this because I come from a small state. If it passes, you won't see a lot of presidential candidates out, after the primary season is over, in the small states,” Dean said of moving to a popular vote for president. “But you will see presidential candidates of both parties in Texas and California. And I think you need to do that. Right now, Democrats don't go to Texas, and Republicans don’t go to California. That’s not so good for the country.”
In telephone interviews after Dean's comments, the idea won the backing of two top Democrats in Vermont, where Dean served as governor before running for president in 2004.
Vermont Secretary of State Deb Markowitz said the 2000 election, in which Democrat Al Gore lost despite winning the popular vote, is “problematic for democracy.”
“I'm with Howard Dean in that I think, in this day and age, we really cross state borders, we move from one state to the next, and there's not this same kind of sense that the interests of one state are very different from the interests of others, which the Electoral College was designed to protect,” she said.
“I think it would help democracy, and I'm not worried that it would dilute Vermont's role,” added Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin, a Putney Democrat.
Across the border in New Hampshire, state Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen said he doesn't have strong feelings about the subject but noted that most of the “hue and cry” to abolish the Electoral College system is coming from Democrats.
“I do think that historically the Electoral College is a bit of an anachronism. That being said, I also think it has served our nation well, like so many things our founders set up,” Cullen said.
At the Dartmouth class on comparative politics, Dean fielded about 20 questions during his hour-long appearance.
Dean said:
* He didn't think the New Hampshire primary's influence on presidential politics was being eroded by the front-loading of multiple primaries on Feb. 5, shortly after the Granite State is expected to hold its vote.
“Judging by the number of presidential candidates you've had here, and how often they've come, I don’t think New Hampshire is in any danger of losing its influence. In fact, I think the front-loading movement to Feb. 5 is actually going to increase New Hampshire's influence, because I think the front four states are essentially going to set the tone,” he said.
* Historically, only voters in Oregon and Vermont had been driven at the polls by environmental concerns, but Gore's focus on climate change in the movie An Inconvenient Truth had catalyzed the issue.
“This election is going to be very interesting, because concern over global warming has begun to go to the top echelons of what people worry about,” Dean said.
* The newly elected president of France, conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, would be seen as “a moderate Democrat over here.”
“I'm not joking,” Dean said. “I think we ought to give Sarkozy a chance. The French people have spoken. We don't know a lot about him, but we know he's bright, he’s apparently supportive of America, which is certainly a welcome change from President Chirac, and let’s just see how this works.”
* While he doesn't believe the Second Amendment gives each individual the right to bear arms, he also rejected the notion of national gun control laws.
“I come from a state that doesn't have any gun laws, except that there's no shooting deer from a car -- they don't think that’s fair,” Dean quipped. “My views on guns are that every state is so different, then why not let the people of each state decide how much or how little gun control they want. I don't see how you can have a national gun control law, because one size doesn’t fit all.”
After the class, students said they were pleased to have a new view of Dean.
Evan Nogay, a freshman football player from West Virginia, said he had formed his opinion of Dean as “erratic” from the televised “scream” speech the Vermont Democrat made to supporters after the Iowa caucuses in 2004. “I was incredibly impressed with him in general,” Nogay said of Dean yesterday.
Lisa Baldez, the government professor whose class hosted Dean, said the format had fit well with the course's focus on revolutionary change.
“There was something about the classroom … that kind of allowed him to engage the issues more deeply. He answered 20 questions, and he provided really thoughtful answers. I was really pleased,” Baldez said.
There was one issue, however, that Dean didn't discuss. Though he wasn't asked about the movement to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, which has consumed Vermont activists in recent months, Dean ducked the issue when asked by a reporter as he was leaving.
“I'm not going to comment on that,” Dean said.
Dean on the Constitution and GOP. “Get rid of them!”
A runt of a despot he is.
So Dean has finally come out and said the U.S. Constitution is useless. At least he's honest in his thoughts.
Funny -- but haven't I also heard this idea being sold as being good for small states?
This is the sleaziest kind of shell game they are playing here -- and people had better wake up and put a stop to it.
Perhaps we should just throw out the election system in general and declare the Democrats the winners every time. /sarc
Excuse me, but why in the world would a Democrat want a French leader that is supportive of the US? Dean will have to rethink this. The things the new president likes are just the things Dean and his fellow travelers hate about us.
They have no problem in insisting that the 2004 vote was “also stolen” because of Ohio even though Bush got more votes than Kerry.
And Gore’s much “heralded” victory was with 0.51% of the national vote. Which would’ve meant a FULL RECOUNT and the inclusion of ALL MILITARY BALLOTS (even the Florida ballots were approved in court but not certified in the total).
Howard Dean is an ass and the perfect head of the Donkey party. Eeeeaaaawwwww! Eeeeeeaaaaaaawwwwwwww!
Go ahead Dems... pull those pistols.
The next war won’t be civil............
How did Clinton manipulate the electoral college? He won the ‘92 election by 370 to 168 electoral votes. Do you mean that Ross Perot pulled votes from Bush Sr. and tipped the balance in some states?
Sad to say, Clinton got 5% more of the popular vote than Bush Sr. in ‘92.
Your electoral college assessment is correct, however, there is not a Bush Sr., and W is not a Jr.
Is he talking about the Constitution, the States, or just the U.S. as a sovereign nation, in general. Read between the lines.
Silly, this is the DNCs blanket statement on the RKBA (2nd Amendment also.
No. If the electoral college were scrapped, the president would be elected by Philadelphia, Chicago and Seattle, each of which would give the Demcrat 100 million votes.
I’m sorry, but “The People” can’t always be trusted to make the right decision. “The People” tend to make popular decisions. Remember, “the people” chose Barabbas.
And last I checked, we live in a republic, not a democracy. Just because Dean failed high school civics doesn’t mean that we have to live with that failure.
Bingo. When they win elections it is because they have a mandate. When they lose elections it is because they were stolen from them or the masses were whipped up into a phoney hysteria.
In the end, elections are a waste of resources (time, money, paper, energy, transportation, et al) that can be better spent advancing socialism in the USSA. < /s >
The thing that probably really frosts the Democrats is that typically the Republican still wins with a majority of the popular vote. The Democratic candidates for the last however many years have really just not been able to get a lot of votes, so they have to resort to tricks.
Bill Clinton never got a majority of the popular vote, even though he’s supposedly our most favoritest president ever.
To howlin’ howie... NO!
LLS
Interlopers like Perot and others tend to mess up the electoral picture...........
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