The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I think most people would agree that the electoral college is not the optimal way of electing a president. Most seem to feel the optimal way of going about this is through the popular vote. I don't think that's ideal either, however.  Over the past few days, I've read and heard multiple people throw out the idea of basing the electoral college on percentages. For example - at this current time, Obama has received 59% of the vote in California, while Romney has received 39%. The state is worth 55 electoral votes, so Obama would receive 32.5 (.59 x 55) and Romney would receive 21.5 (.39 x 55). The most recent person who shared this idea with me contended that Mitt Romney would have won the election if this had been the electoral college format. After going through the numbers, however, I can say that's not the case. The final electoral vote numbers would have been much closer, but President Obama would still have been elected to a second term in the Oval Office. At th...

I'm two for two thus far in my debate predictions. Due to the success the Romney team had at lowering expectations for the first debate, along with the fact that history has repeatedly told us that the challenger typically "wins" the first debate over the incumbent president, I felt that in the public's eyes, Romney would be seen as the ultimate victor at the debate two Wednesday's ago. With polls showcasing that Romney running mate Paul Ryan was favored to get the better of Joe Biden in the Vice Presidential debate and that he was likely asked not to spoil the momentum by being overly aggressive and potentially saying something that could backfire - likely being told to play things rather conservatively, I gave the edge to Biden in last Thursday night's Vice Presidential debate. While I personally feel the first presidential debate was a draw, polls show that the public largely feels Romney won said debate and that Biden was the victor last week. That bring...