Republicans just can’t get over the fact that a rookie U.S. senator with no executive experience but tons of charisma cleaned the clock of a Vietnam War hero and veteran U.S. senator a quarter-century his senior to become the leader of the free world.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the Grand Old Party is still smarting from Barack Obama’s big win over John McCain in 2008, and Republicans won’t be happy until they drive him out of office — whatever it takes.
You can bet your life’s savings that a shamefully large number of Republicans hope the U.S. economy remains in the pits at least until Election Day 2012, because battered voters likely will vote Mr. Obama out of office. Leading the disloyal opposition is the U.S. Senate’s top Republican, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who publicly stated his top legislative priority is to make sure Barack Obama does not get re-elected.
In Harrisburg, a move by the majority leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate, Dominic Pileggi, would go a long way to achieve that. The Delaware County Republican has introduced a bill that would end the “winner takes all” system of awarding Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes — which have gone to every Democratic presidential nominee since 1992 — and instead give those votes to the winners of each congressional district.
That’s a great idea — but only if every other state in the union adopts the same system. What’s good for blue-state Pennsylvania should be good for red-state Texas. An even better idea is to abolish the Electoral College and allow the presidential candidate who gets the most popular votes to — GASP! — become president.
That idea will never happen, though, because it makes sense. ••
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