I wonder what Birch Bayh, who has been trying to eliminate the Electoral College for decades, will think of his son's sudden affection for the institution?
Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, who backs Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, proposed another gauge Sunday by which superdelegates might judge whether to support Mrs. Clinton or Senator Barack Obama.
He suggested that they consider the electoral votes of the states that each of them has won.
“So who carried the states with the most Electoral College votes is an important factor to consider because ultimately, that's how we choose the president of the United States,” Mr. Bayh said on CNN's “Late Edition.”
In a primary, of course, electoral votes are not relevant, but the Clinton campaign is trying to use them as an unofficial measure of strength.
Of course, Clinton has been strongly against the Electoral College, too, so this is naked opportunism at its most cynical -- not that there's anything necessarily wrong with a little ruthlessness in our presidents. At times, it has been downright helpful. And at least the Clinton camp has finally come to the right conclusion, if for the wrong reason. And, of course, the Electoral College is what we use, whatever one thinks of it. I've written a lot of pieces about how wrong the was to start the lottery as a way to sneakily increase government spending. That doesn't mean I feel hypocrtical if I buy a lottery ticket once in a while. The lottery is there, whatever I think of it.
