1. After Barack Obama Wins 2012, Republicans Will Destroy
the Electoral College
The week started with Gallup commencing daily tracking of presidential election polls. Since
then, countless pundits on both sides of the aisle have begun to make their predictions. I,
however, have a prediction you haven’t heard. The 2012 presidential election will be the last to
be decided via the Electoral College.
Lets imagine its November 7. President Obama has just won the Electoral College count but
has lost the popular vote, a situation that is currently being predicted by some. Despite Barack
Obama’s narrow victory, Democrats have lost control of both the House and the Senate.
Outraged by the reelection of a Kenyan, who refuses to release his elementary school grades,
through the elitist Electoral College, Republicans over on Capitol Hill begin to strategize how to
abolish the Founding Fathers’ freedom-killing Electoral College. By the 2016 election cycle, a
constitutional amendment to decide presidential elections by the popular vote has easily passed
three-fourths of the states’ legislatures. So what will this mean for national politics?
Under the current system, about 34 states and the District of Columbia are either solidly
Democratic or solidly Republican. As a result, the presidential candidates largely ignore these
states and their collective population of 196,247,758. This means that the concerns of
approximately two-thirds of the country will be commandeered by the concerns of the third that
live in all-important swing states. While the Electoral College might suffer from some pesky
anti-democratic problems, its destruction will have an interesting side effect.
If each vote counts equally, candidates will be forced to run true national campaigns. That
sounds great, but first let’s take a look at a list of America’s largest and thus most expensive
media markets. The top six — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas-Ft.
Worth, and Houston-Galveston — are all located in non-swing states, states that simply do not
draw serious campaign dollars under the current system. If candidates were forced to find
voters in these markets, the costs of running a presidential campaign would become
incalculable. In post-Citizens United America, this would mean even greater power
concentrated in the hands of the moneyed. If the Electoral College is eliminated without
campaign finance reform, the Electoral College will be replaced by a more dangerous electoral
method, election by private financers.
Obama wins 2012 presidential election, defeats Romney in
tight race
President Obama overcame a bad economy, high unemployment and a fractured political
landscape to win a second term in the White House Tuesday night, defeating challenger Mitt
Romney by taking several key battleground states and denying him any inroads in traditional
Democratic bastions.
The Northeastern states all stayed in Obama’s column by huge margins, but he also took at
1/7

2. least six of the nine swing states, including all-important Ohio, bringing the 51-year-old president
over the 270 electoral votes he needed to win, according to unofficial returns.
New Jersey voters — faced with major challenges in getting to the polls in the wake of wide
devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy — went solidly for the president, giving him the
state’s 14 electoral votes. They also re-elected U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who
easily defeated Republican Joe Kyrillos, as the Democrats increased their majority in the
Senate.
In one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country, Elizabeth Warren defeated
Republican Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Despite the loss at the top of the ticket, the
GOP retained its control of the House.
Following projections by the Associated Press and all the major networks that he had won,
Obama tweeted on his official Twitter account: “We’re all in this together. That’s how we
campaigned, and that’s who we are. Thank you.”
MORE 2012 ELECTION COVERAGE:
• Analysis: Obama wins, but Washington remains unchanged
• Obama in victory: ‘The best is yet to come’
• Romney concedes: ‘The nation chose another leader’
• Robert Menendez wins second U.S. Senate term
• Election 2012: Incumbents rule in N.J. House races
• N.J. voters say yes to ballot questions on higher education, judges’ benefits
• N.J. Assemblywomen secure seats in special election
In an e-mail to supporters, Obama said, “You organized yourselves block by block. You took
ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn’t easy, you pressed
forward. I will spend the rest of my presidency honoring your support, and doing what I can to
finish what we started.”
Romney in a short concession speech, wished the president well.
“This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray the president will be successful in
2/7

3. guiding the nation,” said Romney, who thanked his running mate, Paul Ryan, his volunteers, his
family and his wife.
He urged an end to partisan bickering.
“We look to Democrats and Republicans at all levels to put people before politics,” said
Romney, his family by his side. “I believe in America. I believe in the people of America.”
In a victory speech early this morning, Obama looked toward the future.
“While our road has been hard, though our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves
up,” he said. “We have fought our way back and we know in our hearts that for the United
States of America, the best is yet to come.”
TOUGH CAMPAIGN
The victory by Obama ended the most expensive political campaign in American history and
one of the harshest. Candidates flooded the airwaves with relentless attacks on each other, with
accusations of lying, deceit, fabrications and other chicanery — even renewed charges over the
long discredited claims over whether Obama had been born in this country — which flew for
almost a year.
Obama questioned Romney’s lack of a specific plan for reviving the economy while branding
the challenger a candidate who changed his positions to suit the shifting political winds.
Romney, 65, went after the president’s economic policies touting his own success in business
as the skill most needed in tough times. He also sought to portray Obama as weak on foreign
policy but neither strategy pried enough of the nation’s independent voters to his side.
EnlargeHeather L. RohanMike Wigart
(2nd L), 30, picks up his ballot at a polling station in the garage of the Los Angeles County
3/7

4. lifeguard headquarters on November 6, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Californians will cast
ballots in dozens of tight races including Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax plan, abolishing the death
penalty, easing the state’s strict “three strikes” sentencing law and also in the Presidential race
between Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney. (Kevork
Djansezian/Getty Images)Best of nationwide photos from 2012 Presidential election gallery (19
photos)
Put over the top in 2008 by the passion of first-time voters and minorities, Obama this time
around eked out victory through a sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation, as well as a hard
focus on advance voting. More than 30 million voters cast early ballots in nearly three dozen
states long before election day.
With both candidates writing off solidly red and blue states already in the pocket of the other
side, the race played out mostly in the battleground states of Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia,
Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada — which accounted for 110 of
the 270 electoral votes need to win the presidency.
Turnout, though, was high all over the country, including New Jersey, which was ripped apart
last week by Hurricane Sandy, and where serious storm damage and continuing power outages
still has thousands in the dark — posing unique challenges for voting.
4/7

5. Many polling places, still without electricity, had to be relocated, while efforts in New Jersey to
allow people to vote by fax and e-mail led to no small amount of chaos.
The storm, which left behind a swath of destruction through New Jersey and New York, may
have been a factor in how people voted, and not just in the Northeast. Sandy all but suspended
the presidential race for days, as the election was quickly overshadowed by images of the
terrible destruction left behind by Sandy and the subsequent response by Obama, who visited
some of the worst damage with Gov. Chris Christie, and directed a substantial response by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
With the high turnout, there were long waits at many polling places both in New Jersey and
elsewhere. In Edison, Dorothy Ashton, a longtime poll worker, was struck by the number of
people coming to vote.
“We’ve never had this many voters this early in the day,” she said. “We had more in the first
hour than we had all day long during the primary.”
At the American Legion hall in Brick, where caution signs and yellow tape still limit travel in the
Shore town hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, voting was also brisk.
Kathleen O’Donnell, who lost everything after her home was flooded, said she still felt
compelled to vote before she was forced to evacuate again in advance of a new storm expected
to hit New Jersey today.
“I said let’s get over and vote before we are evacuated,” she said. “I just felt that we had to
vote. It’s our duty.”
According to national exit polling, most voters identified the economy as the overriding issue
facing the country.
That held especially true in New Jersey as well, with nearly seven in 10 voters calling the
economy the most important issue facing the nation — far outweighing health care, the deficit
and foreign policy. Almost four in five described the economy as “not so good or poor.”
“Employment, work,” said Tony Abrantes of Denville, when asked about what concerned him in
his election.
More than three in five New Jersey voters said unemployment is the biggest economic issue
facing voters. Fewer than one in five cited taxes, rising prices or the housing market as the most
important.
Polling in New Jersey was done before Sandy struck. While those questions said that Romney
was better-equipped to handle the country’s economic problems, many in the survey,
conducted for the Associated Press and a group of television networks, blamed former
President George W. Bush for the country’s economic woes than they did Obama.
5/7

6. At the same time, a significant percentage of people said Obama was more in touch with people
like themselves.
EnlargeStar-Ledger StaffVoters enter
the Bridgewater Raritan High School to vote after having their regular voting location moved
because of Sandy. Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012. (Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger)N.J. voters turn out on
election day 2012 gallery (16 photos)
6/7

7. Both candidates were keyed almost exclusively to the economy throughout the long campaign,
which was joined not only by Vice President Joe Biden and Republican running mate Paul
Ryan, but high-profile surrogates for both candidates, including former President Bill Clinton for
Obama and Christie for Romney.
Obama’s message, hammered through countless television commercials, was that the nation,
under his leadership, has begun to recover from the worst recession since the Great
Depression. He also pointed to his bailout of the U.S. auto industry as saving hundreds of
thousands of jobs.
The president, while conceding progress has been slow, accused Romney of offering recycled
Republican “trickle-down” policies pandered to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
Romney adopted Obama’s 2008 battle cry of change, arguing the country was not better off
than it was four years ago. He said another four years under Obama would lead to an extended
recession.
The former governor, whose wealth is estimated as high as $250 million, claimed his skills fixing
companies would enable him to fix the country and its economy.
The two also clashed over taxes, the economy, Medicare, abortion and health care — with
Romney promising to repeal “Obamacare,” the national health insurance plan that Obama said
was largely based on the health plan Romney installed in Massachusetts when he was
governor.
Obama, who made history as the nation’s first African-American president in a high emotion
campaign four years ago that promised change, had been seen by Republicans as particularly
vulnerable in this election year. He spent a considerable amount of political capital getting his
health plan passed, while the economy continued to falter.
Yet he wound down the Iraq war and took credit for killing Osama bin Laden, and despite his
low poll numbers leading into the heat of the campaign, still had a personal likability that never
faded.
The president began Election Day with a visit to a campaign office near his South Side home, to
thank workers there.
Obama also engaged in a traditional Election Day basketball game with friends, as he does
before every election.
The president’s team won.
Red Light Therapy
7/7
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)