🚀 go-pugleaf

> In article <3277DD88.48AF@aud.alcatel.com>, Artie_Turner <artie_turner@aud.alc atel.com> wrote:
> >Ernie Englehart wrote:
> >
> >> It's time to do away with the electoral college and elect the President > >> based on popular vote.  Then the power to elect will be 
placed back into
> >> the hands of the voters, who could write in the man that they REALLY want > >> to be their President.
> >
> >
> >Just for the record, Einstein, no President has ever been elected by the > >electoral college that didn't win the majority of the popular 
vote.
> 
> You really shouldn't impugn the intelligence of a person, especially when > you're the one who needs to check his facts.

You're absolutly right.  My apologies to Mr. Englehart for my poor 
scholorship and etiquette.  I actually knew that there were instances 
where the president had been elected with less than a majority, but I 
was at work, having a bad day, and didn't have a history text at hand.  I 
don't believe however, that the electoral college has directly or 
indirectly thwarted the will of the people in recent memory, certainly 
not since Reagan's election in '79.  I don't believe that the "power to 
elect" has been taken out of the hands of the voters, as Mr. Englehart 
claims.

Has the electoral college outlived its usefulness? Would write-ins 
change the outcome of the current election? I'm inclined to say yes to 
both IF elegible voters were to turn out in greater numbers than the 
roughly 50% that we've seen in recent elections.  Roughly twenty five 
percent of the elegible vote is all it takes to be president these days! 
But regardless of the outcome, I see no reason to condemn the PLURALITY 
who continue to elect a Republican or Democrat to the office of 
president.  Partisans on both sides would have us believe that the sky is 
falling because their opponents have been involved in a scandal 
(Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, etc.)  When you get to the bottom of 
it, anyone who's been in politics, no, EVERYONE has had a few moral and 
ethical lapses and all that really matters is who is best suited to be 
CEO of USA, Inc.

Once again, my apologies to Mr. Englehart. 

Artie