Earl Hutchinson has this article about Cynthia McKinney’s presidential run in the Huffington Post of July 12.
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The Wall Street Journal of July 12 has this op-ed, attacking the National Popular Vote Plan and defending the Electoral College as it is today. The op-ed is by Political Science Professor David Lewis Schaefer, who teaches at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The op-ed makes several assertions that are not supported by the evidence. It says a system in which the voters elect the president directly “would encourage more minor-party candidates” and says this would be a bad thing because someone could win with a small share of the vote. Actually, if the goal is to have a system in which no one is elected without having a majority of the vote, one should favor the system used by France. In France, the voters elect the president directly, but there is a run-off if no one gets 50% in the first round. The run-off is held only three weeks after the first round.
It is the current system in which someone may get elected with a relatively small share of the vote. The current system produced Abraham Lincoln in 1860, even though he only had 39.8% of the popular vote. It also produced John Quincy Adams in 1824 with 31.9%, Woodrow Wilson in 1912 with 41.8%, Richard Nixon in 1968 with 43.4%, and Bill Clinton in 1992 with 43.0%.
The op-ed also says, “In a two-party race, you can’t win an election without demonstrating your acceptability to a large swath of the public”, but there has been no presidential election with just two candidates, or just two parties, since 1864.
The op-ed also reveals an ignorance about minor parties when it refers to “Ross Perot’s 1992 Reform Party.” The Reform Party was not founded until 1995; Perot was an independent candidate in 1992.
Newsweek has this interview with Jesse Ventura, dated July 11, about his potential run for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota.
The Washington Post on-line has this transcript of Ralph Nader’s on-line chat with people who have questions for him. The event occurred on July 10.
Colorado is expected to have 18 presidential candidates on its November ballot, the most for any state in U.S. history. The prior record had been 14 presidential candidates, set in 1992 in Iowa, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Colorado has five qualified parties: Democratic, Republican, Constitution, Green, and Libertarian. In addition to the presidential nominees of those five parties, thireteen other presidential candidates filed by the June 17 deadline. They needed no petition; they just needed $500 and a list of presidential elector candidates.
The 13 pairs include:
Unaffiliated: Alan Keyes for president and Brian Rohrbough for vice-president. Rohrbough lives in Morrison, Colorado, and is president of American Right to Life. One of his children was killed in the Columbine School shooting. Rohrbough is somewhat well-known for having a monument erected that blames the incident on legalized abortion and the policy of not allowing teachers to lead public school students in prayer, in the classroom.
Unaffiliated: Elvena Lloyd-Duffie for president, no one listed for vice-president. She can add a vice-presidential candidate later. She lives in Chicago. She chose the ballot label “Republican” but the state will require her to change that, and if she doesn’t, she will be “Unaffiliated” on the ballot.
Unaffiliated: William Koenig for president, no one for vice-president. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
Unaffiliated: Frank McEnulty for president, David Mangan for vice-president. They are the nominees of the New American Independent Party but they chose not to use that ballot labe.
Unaffiliated: Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.
Boston Tea: Charles Jay and Dan Sallis. Jay lives in Hollywood, Florida; Sallis lives in Littleton, Colorado.
Heartquake ’08: Jonathan Allen of Olathe, Colorado, and Jeffrey Stath, Ventura, California.
Objectivist: Thomas Stevens of Fresh Meadows, N.Y., and Alden Link of Paramus, N.J.
Pacifist: Bradford Lyttle and Abraham Bassford, both of Chicago.
Prohibition: Gene Amondson and Howard Lydick.
Socialism: Gloria La Riva and Robert Moses. The party’s actual vice-presidential candidate is under age 35, so Moses is a stand-in.
Socialist: Brian Moore and Stewart Alexander.
Socialist Workers: James Harris and Alyson Kennedy. The party’s actual presidential candidate was not born in the U.S., so Harris is a stand-in.