Political Republican Opinion

Political Republican Opinion:

As I was in the process of finishing up my National Defense Issue post in the Comparing McCain and Obama Series, I became distracted by an article that appeared on The Washington Times online. The article explores the possibility that the 2008 presidential contest could finish in an Electoral College 269-269 tie.

Think it can’t happen? “Take the 2004 map and switch Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado into the Blue column, which is what the poll numbers indicate. Then, take New Hampshire and give it to McCain, which is what two recent polls suggest is going to happen. There is your tie,” the article states. Another possible scenario offereded in The Washington Times article is, “if … John McCain wins Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire and Indiana - not at all far-fetched - and Mr. Obama takes reliably Democratic states Pennsylvania and Michigan, and flips Colorado (in which he holds a slight poll lead), with the two splitting New Mexico and Nevada, the electoral vote would be tied at 269.” Then, what would happen?

Well, according to the article, things get pretty dicey as far as the U.S. Constitution is concerned. The framers of the Constitution were fairly vague in their wording of the procedures that would follow. The confusion all centers on whether the currently sitting Congress would determine the tie-breaker or whether the newly elected Congress would.

The Constitution states that the House of Representatives “shall immediately” choose by ballot, the new President. Because the Electoral College ballots are counted in December, some argue that the outgoing Congress would be in charge of making the decision.

Others argue that operative - and decisive - verbiage was set out in U.S. Code Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 15, in 1934. It states that “”Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o’clock in the afternoon on that day.”

The Constitution further provides that the Senate would choose the Vice President in such a scenario. This means that we could have an Obama-Palin White House or a McCain-Biden one. The possibility exists that Dick Cheney may be responsible for selecting the next Vice President, as well!

Other possible scenarios?

The newly elected House is unable to come up with a majority in which case, the burden falls upon the newly elected Senate to choose an acting President until the House can break the deadlock. The Washington Times article assumes in this scenario, that a Democrat-controlled Senate may choose Joe Biden as the acting President, should the House be unable to break the tie by noon on January 20, 2009 – inauguration day.

In another equally far-fetched scenario, neither the House nor the Senate is able to come up with a majority for the President or Vice President by January 20th. In this case, the Speaker of the House, currently Nancy Pelosi, would become the acting President until the whole mess is settled.

Regardless of which scenario you choose, The Political Republican Opinion Blog feels there would be a lengthy series of legal challenges that might leave the office of the President of the United States legally “vacant” for years. If precedent is any indicator, however, the same issue was decided in 1800, when Thomas Jefferson was appointed President by the newly elected House of Representatives in February after an Electoral College tie with Raymond Burr.

A fun read, all-in-all! See the complete article here: 269 tie: An electoral college ‘doomsday’? Oh … and I’m almost done with the previously mentioned National Defense Issue post, coming soon to a computer near you …

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Political Republican Opinion:

Two years ago, Democrats pleaded with voters to elect them in order to turn the economy around and voters responded. In Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s acceptance speech, she stated, “The election of 2006 was a call to change - not merely to change the control of Congress, but for a new direction for our country.”

In the two years since Democrats have taken over with a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, gasoline prices have risen from an average of $2.19 per gallon to a high of $4.11 per gallon before “falling” to today’s average price of $3.83 per gallon. That’s a whopping 74% increase.

Barack Obama, the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, has said that he “would have preferred a more gradual increase” in gas prices. I think the rest of America would agree with The Political Republican Opinion blog, that we would have preferred no increase at all!

The up and down roller coaster of the Dow Jones Industrial average has now reached a level of more than 1,000 points below the level that it was at when the Democrats took control of both houses of the Congress. The median average home price has fallen from $236,200 to $212,400 during that same time span. So, while our transportation costs have gone up, the price of our homes has gone down. What else is important in the everyday lives of Americans? Hmmm … let me see … oh, yes, food!

The cost of flour has risen 70%, bread has gone up 40%, potatoes are 40% higher, and margarine is almost 39% more expensive. Add to that the fact that electricity is 20% higher and heating oil is 27% more expensive and Americans have struggled even more with the Democrats in charge. The really scary part is that we have watched all of this happen in just two years!

Now, with banks and insurance companies going bust and Americans’ investments, savings and retirement funds hanging in the balance, what is the Democrats’ answer? … to just go home!

Lawmakers say that they will probably take no action before their planned adjournments, beginning Sept. 26 for the House and a week later for the Senate. They haven’t ruled out returning after the Nov. 4 elections, but they would rather wait until after the elections and take the matter up next year unless Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke call for their help.

Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday, “No one knows what to do. We are in new territory here. This is a different game. We’re not here playing soccer, basketball or football, this is a new game and we’re going to have to figure out how to do it.” As usual, Democrats have no problem criticizing “Republican leadership” for the crisis but have no answers of their own. Oh … except “we need CHANGE.”

And what does Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi think of Congress’ decision to make no decisions? She defended the latest Congressional vacation, saying that they could always return “if there’s a need to.”

“IF THERE’S A NEED TO?” I seem to recall this was the same position Pelosi took when a large majority of the American people were begging for Congress to allow more drilling in and off the coast of the United States. She would not allow a vote and sent the House home. What have they done since then? Absolutely nothing!

Who do these people get their work ethic from, George Costanza? It’s time to wake up America! Democrats, Republicans and Independents surely must see that this is not leadership; this is running away when times get tough – the same position, incidentally, that Democrats promoted when things were not going swimmingly well in Iraq.

Republicans, it’s time to get rid of the do-nothings in Washington by getting to the polls and taking the House and Senate back. It’s time to unseat these horrible leaders and replace them with people who will do what responsible adults do when there is work to be done. If it is really important, real leaders stay at work until the job is done!

The Political Republican Opinion blog welcomes your comments …

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