DIDN'T WE USED TO CALL IT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?  WELL, I GUESS TRENDS CHANGE – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  The Massachusetts legislature, in an act of profound arrogance and ignorance, has voted to get its state out of the electoral college:

The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

"What we are submitting is the idea that the president should be selected by the majority of people in the United States of America," Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said before the Senate voted to enact the bill.

Under the new bill, he said, "Every vote will be of the same weight across the country."...

...The bill, which passed on a 28-to-9 vote, now heads to Democratic Governor Deval Patrick's desk. The governor has said in the past that he supports the bill, said his spokeswoman Kim Haberlin.

Under the law, which was enacted by the House last week, all 12 of the state's electoral votes would be awarded to the candidate who receives the most votes nationally.

In other words, the people of the state are effectively disenfranchised.  It's people elsewhere in America who will decide who gets the state's electoral votes.

This is another attempt by the hard left, very present in Massachusetts, to scrap the state system and nationalize everything that can be picked up.

Illinois, New Jersey, Hawaii, Maryland, and Washington have already approved the legislation, according to the National Popular Vote campaign's website. The new system would only go into effect once a sufficient number of states have passed laws that would make it work.

Who do these people think they are?  Was there any groundswell of support for this?

The states on the list so far are traditional Democratic states, although New Jersey is tottering. 

The current Electoral College system is confusing and causes presidential candidates to focus unduly on a handful of battleground states, supporters say. They also say that the popular vote winner has lost in four of the nation's 56 elections.

I love it, I love it.  Something is always too "confusing" for the people.

As far as concentrating on a handful of battleground states, that's nonsense.  We've been running widespread campaigns, and some candidates actually ignore some large states if they think they're lost. 

We know from 2000 that even a small state can be decisive.  If Al Gore had won his own state of Tennessee, a medium-sized state, he would have been president, and without Florida. 

The electoral college system should only be changed by constitutional amendment, not by these silly "opt-out" laws that effectively surrender state sovereignty.  We are the United States, not a mob. 

July 29, 2010