The death of former Secretary of State Warren Christopher at the age of 85 brings back many memories.
A key adviser to President Jimmy Carter and the first Secretary of State in the Bill Clinton Administration, Christopher always came across as a thoughtful, dedicated public servant who served his Presidents with distinction.
But what the author remembers even more is the legal battle waged by Christopher for former Vice President Al Gore in the contested Presidential Election of 2000, when the battle over the electoral votes of Florida dragged out the election controversy for 36 long days, but with James Baker, who was Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, and the leader of the legal team for George W. Bush, ultimately being victorious when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bush over Gore, despite Gore having a popular vote margin of over half a million citizens!
So Christopher’s passing brings back wistful memories of what might have been, had Al Gore been President in the first decade of the 21st century, rather than George W. Bush!
How different would the history of the United States be, both domestic and foreign, if Al Gore had been in charge? That is all speculation, and excellent for a potential political novel, a “What If?” book, similar to Jeff Greenfield’s new book, THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED: STUNNING ALTERNATE HISTORIES OF AMERICAN POLITICS: JFK, RFK, CARTER, FORD, REAGAN.
btw
The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
Every vote, everywhere, would be politically relevant and equal in presidential elections. Elections wouldn’t be about winning states. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. Every vote, everywhere would be counted for and directly assist the candidate for whom it was cast. Candidates would need to care about voters across the nation, not just undecided voters in a handful of swing states.
Now, 2/3rds of the states and people have been merely spectators to the presidential elections, and policies important to the citizens of ‘flyover’ states are not as highly prioritized as policies important to ‘battleground’ states when it comes to governing.
Since World War II, a shift of a handful of votes in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in 4 of the 13 presidential elections. Near misses are now frequently common. There have been 6 consecutive non-landslide presidential elections. Besides 537 popular votes winning Florida and the White House for Bush in 2000 despite Gore’s lead of 537,179 popular votes nationwide, a shift of 60,000 votes in Ohio in 2004 would have defeated President Bush despite his nationwide lead of over 3 Million votes.
The bill would take effect only when enacted by states possessing a majority of the electoral votes–that is, enough electoral votes to elect a President (270 of 538). Then, all the electoral votes from those states would be awarded to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states (and DC).
The bill uses the power given to each state by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution to change how they award their electoral votes for president. Historically, virtually all of the major changes in the method of electing the President, including ending the requirement that only men who owned substantial property could vote and 48 current state-by-state winner-take-all laws, have come about by state legislative action.
In Gallup polls since 1944, only about 20% of the public has supported the current system of awarding all of a state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most votes in each separate state (with about 70% opposed and about 10% undecided). Support for a national popular vote is strong in virtually every state, partisan, and demographic group surveyed in recent polls in closely divided battleground states: CO – 68%, FL – 78%, IA 7-5%,, MI – 73%, MO – 70%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM– 76%, NC – 74%, OH – 70%, PA – 78%, VA – 74%, and WI – 71%; in smaller states (3 to 5 electoral votes): AK – 70%, DC – 76%, DE – 75%, ID – 77%, ME – 77%, MT – 72%, NE 74%, NH – 69%, NV – 72%, NM – 76%, OK – 81%, RI – 74%, SD – 71%, UT – 70%, VT – 75%, WV – 81%, and WY – 69%; in Southern and border states: AR – 80%,, KY- 80%, MS – 77%, MO – 70%, NC – 74%, OK – 81%, SC – 71%, VA – 74%, and WV – 81%; and in other states polled: CA – 70%, CT – 74%, MA – 73%, MN – 75%, NY – 79%, OR – 76%, and WA – 77%.
The bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers, in 21 small, medium-small, medium, and large states, including one house in AR, CT, DE, DC, ME, MI, NV, NM, NY, NC, and OR, and both houses in CA, CO, HI, IL, NJ, MD, MA ,RI, VT, and WA . The bill has been enacted by DC, HI, IL, NJ, MD, MA, and WA. These 7 states possess 74 electoral votes — 27% of the 270 necessary to bring the law into effect.
http://wwww.NationalPopularVote.com