George F. Will column: The president who knew too little about the Electoral College

The Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | May 2, 2018 | George F. Will

[Snowybear]

Says the man kicked off every network he’s ever appeared on. Trump has gotten more done in one year than all of Will’s butt buddies did in 70 years.

[kosciusko51]

To paraphrase Salena Zito, George will takes Trump literally, but not seriously.

[CodeToad]

Georgie is one of those people Reagan spoke about in 1964 and again in 1980 that were liberal Republicans.

[Enlightened1]

George Will has lost touch with his conservative base and is no longer relevant.

He is VERY JEALOUS and EXTREMELY DISRESPECTFUL of President Trump.

Why anyone reads or listens to this bitter old man’s garbage and angry articles is beyond me?

[SkyDancer]

As was pointed out: Five or six largest cities in the US would determine the president if it was a democratic election. Three wolves vs two sheep voting as to what’s for dinner, that’s a democracy.

[Brilliant]

Yes. A popular vote means that states with poor turnout would get underweighted. With the electoral college your State’s clout is based on how many people reside in your state, not on how many show up on Election Day.

[Ted Grant]

George Will is exactly the type of Republican that let conservatives into the weeds. He’s very angry that most of us know it now.

[TomGuy]

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.

I think Will, intentionally or unintentionally, cut off a latter portion of Trump's remark. IIRC, Trump went on to say that it would be easier to campaign in the large cities in a few states than having to travel to so many smaller states.

Sorry, George, but Trump knew more about the Electoral College than you are giving him credit for. After all, he seemed to know which states to campaign in -- certainly more than Hillary and her entourage of experts seemed to know.

[CodeJockey]

George Will is to journalism as Hillary Clinton is to politics.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

On the other hand, Will’s no neo-con like the smug-arsed Kristol is.

[SunkenCiv]

Fake conservative bowtied foureyed a-hole snarks around an irrelevant campaign tidbit President Trump threw to the sharks. Thanks Tolerance Sucks Rocks.

[GOPJ]

Fake conservative bowtied foureyed a-hole snarks around an irrelevant campaign tidbit President Trump threw to the sharks.

Hatred is rotting out George Will's brain...

[ssaftler]

He favors this “because" ... “to me, it’s much easier to win the popular vote.”

As Hitlery so ably proved.

I think it's time that Mr. Will spend more time in his box seat at Nationals' Park and less time in his office seat writing this sort of tripe.

[KC_Conspirator]

George Will is an @$$. His writing at one time was not so sophomoric.

[The people have spoken]

If what Diamond called the Electoral College’s “magnifying lens” had been scrapped when the ABA commission called for this, the current president’s 46 percent of the popular vote could not have been translated into 56 percent of the electoral vote (304) and President Hillary Clinton would be glad that the Electoral College had ended.

This statement by Will shows he completely misunderstood Trump's comment. If a popular vote system had been in place, the campaigns would have been very different, and it is not a forgone conclusion that Hillary would have won.

[kanawa]

+1

[Robert DeLong]

The real problem is that George Will took him seriously, but with Trump he always as an ulterior motive for saying things he knows are popular, but are nonetheless ridiculous. His motive, rubbing salt into Hillary’s still gushing wound she received on November 8th 2016. 8>)

[enumerated]

The obsolete pundit who new too little about irony.

Trump was obviously being facetious.

Clinton won the popular race, and complained about the electoral college giving Trump the victory. So, Trump says [paraphrasing]: “Fine, let’s use the popular vote - I’ll win anyway. I’ll just run a different campaign. In fact, it will be easier because I’ll only have to campaign in three states”.

How hard is that to understand?

[wardaddy]

An atheist snob fop who I guarantee has run his mouth free of charge all his life

He thinks he’s Samuel Johnson

[dsc]

“If what Diamond called the Electoral College’s “magnifying lens” had been scrapped when the ABA commission called for this, the current president’s 46 percent of the popular vote”

How come everybody pretends that the official numbers are correct? How come nobody ever mentions the *vast* amount of election fraud committed by the dims?

My guess is that if only the legal votes are counted, one per citizen, that Trump won the popular vote by a substantial margin.