Admittedly, I haven’t fully thought through the implications on this, but as we struggled with our presidential endorsement decision, I did have this thought occur to me several times: If we hadn’t gone to messing with the Constitution, we could elect BOTH McCain and Obama.
True, that wouldn’t please those of you who buy into the whole "my guy is pure good and the other guy is pure evil" thing. But for those of us who like both candidates, it would make things a little easier.
Of course, if current polls hold true, that would make Obama the president and McCain the veep, whereas I’d prefer it the other way around. But that’s better than getting one and the other being left out entirely. Thanks to the 12th Amendment, we get either McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden, and I just don’t find either of those combos entirely satisfactory…
Related Posts
The L.A. Times Suppresses videotape of Obama at PLO gala
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDFkMGE2MmM1M2Q5MmY0ZmExMzUxMWRhZGJmMTAyOGY=
Obama, Ayers, and PLO supporters at 2003 toast of Edward Said’s successor, but the press doesn’t think it’s quite as newsworthy as Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.
Agree entirely, Brad. Especially on economic issues. I really like McCain’s capitalist-free market philosophy, but then I am also just wildly enthused with Obama’s Marxist-Leninist socialist views. Oh, but if we could only have both! I also just love McCain’s strict constructionist philosophy on the judiciary, and then again I am wildly excited about Obama’s penchant for judicial activisism on the bench. Why, oh why, can’t we have both? Finally, I really do appreciate McCain’s pro-military and strong defense posture, but then again Obama is really appealing with his anti-military “cut and run” philosophy. Man, if we could only do without the 12th amendment and havae both.
I also like McCain’s proposal to cut taxes, but I also have come around to really liking Obama’s plans to raise my taxes so he can take from me and spread the wealth with those who don’t want to work. And I’ve got to decide by next Tuesday? You make it so difficult.
Elect Obama and he will repeal the entire Constitution, by ignoring it.
One big reason all of Big Media likes Obama is that the Democrats promise to shut down their competition in talk radio, cable TV and the Internet news sites.
Wow… its almost like the more we ignore him the crazier he gets. It’s kind of amusing (in a sad sort of way).
Still can’t come up with anything in Obama’s platform that is not distasteful to real Americans.
That’s why his air head followers talk about how well he reads a teleprompter, and how nice his suits fit.
No, the problem is not with the 12th Amendment. It’s with voter registration. Now that we have computers and the internet, we should be able to access an account with the office of the secretary of state (of our respective states) to vote using secure access within a specified period of time, or show up at the polls on election day, where people should also be allowed to register immediately prior to voting.
Voter registration came into existence as a means of keeping blacks in the south and poor ethnic whites in the north from voting in the aftermath of Reconstruction and the massive immigration that took place after the turn of the century.
We might want to consider amending the constitution to require that electoral votes be distributed proportionate to the vote. That would make everyone’s vote in the country equal, rather than giving an advantage to voters resident in rural states. It would also make it less necessary to target specific states in a federal election, thereby allowing candidates to barnstorm everywhere since now everyone’s vote would be worth the same.
I am sure the Republicans would reject this since our cumbersome federal system of 50 state presidential elections favors the more rural and conservative parts of the country.
It’s like the situation in the Senate where just 17% of the total population controls 51% of the votes. That’s nonsense. Senate votes should be apportioned by population. Of course, that would require a constitutional convention since the document as currently written forbids any change to the provision that each state be represented by two senators.
Our constitution is basically a good document and quite soundly supports federalism and governmental devolution, but it is in serious need of updating.
Attacking the twelfth amendment does not address the inequalities in the weight of votes depending upon where you live, and that, along with a nescient system of voter registration that only suppresses voting, needs to be addressed.
US Senators represent the STATES, and the Representatives represent the PEOPLE directly.
The SENATORS originally were elected by the state legislatures. Enemies of limited republican democracy got that changed to direct election by the entire state.
Is you think the influence of 17 states is excessive, merge New England into one state and give them just 2 Senators.
Democrats plan to kill 401-k plans
by Lee Muller
Barack Obama and other radicals in the Democratic Party are calling tax-free contributions to 401-k plans a “loophole” and readying legislation to end all employer contributions and pre-tax contributions.
“We’ve invested $80 billion into subsidizing this activity,” he said, referring to tax breaks allowed for 401(k) contributions and savings”, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Rep. Jim McDermott, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers transfer their savings into government-created “guaranteed retirement accounts” for every worker.
The government would deposit $600 (inflation indexed) every year into the GRAs. Each worker would also have to save 5 percent of pay into the accounts, to which the government would pay a measly 3 percent return.
Did you get that? Workers who saved would be forced to sell out of stocks at the bottom of the market, and deposit the cash into a government savings account.
A 3% return on $10,000 yields $22,000 in 40 years.
A 7% return from the stock market average yeilds $150,000.
The amount of wealth which would be destroyed on the front end would be devastating to economic growth, and leave millions of hard-working Americans dependent on government retirement plan promises.
The majority of Obama supporters have no savings, and no retirement plans. They welcome taking money from “the rich”. This scheme has appeal to the reparations crowd as more get-back on “rich white folks”.
Investment News
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081007/REG/810079894
US News & World
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/10/23/would-obama-dems-kill-401k-plans.html
Thanks for the links, Lee. The National Review column about the L.A. Times’ suppression of a tape of Obama at the Khalidi bash was especially interesting.
And, Brad, didn’t Follower do a wonderful job of twisting your (I hope) little 12th Amendment joke around you like a cobra?
McCain and Obama would be oil and water together, or chicken and fox.
Not at all. I’m talking about electing McCain and Obama. I thought we had established that Sarah Palin was the fox…
and who would be the chicken? there would be but one answer
Brad, I think some of your readers here will be of the opinion that your quest for repeal should have aimed one amendment later.
Your blog was harder to find for me on the new State home page. You should complain! Those young tech designers are probably Obamacons who are trying to make it harder to find your blog!
Somehow, I don’t think McCain would make a very good vice president. And what happens when/if the vice president becomes incapacitated or dies? Who takes his/her place?
Sorry, Phillip, but we already have Lee. We don’t need you to be a right-wing conspiracy theorist, too.
You don’t know that facts are not theory.
Good theory is based on facts.
Exactly what are the educational requirements to be a newspaper editor?
Intellectual curiosity isn’t one of them.
Obama would then appoint a vice president, Karen, subject to congressional confirmation.
Think Congress would go along with Bill Ayers or Rashid Khalidi?
An example of “Rush Limbaugh” reporting, using part of a quotation to make your point to tell half the truth and not the whole truth:
Congressman George Miller
Full Committee Field Hearing: “The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Workers’ Retirement Security”
Wednesday, October 22, 2008:
http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/fc-2008-10-22.shtml
The full paragraph is:
http://edlabor.house.gov/statements/2008-10-22-GMHearingStatement.pdf
The quote above certainly does not sound like the Democrats are going to eliminate 401k’s.
Can anyone else sense that as election time gets nearer and the plight of the McCain campaign seems more and more bleak…that Lee is becoming more and more desperate and unhinged (if such a thing is possible)?
Back to the point of Brad’s comments. I totally agree that the 12th Ammd. should be repealed and I’ll go one step further in that the term of the President & VP should be (1) 8 year term with no extension instead of 4 years with the chance for re-election.
As it is now, our election process is nearly 2 years long. That means year two into the new presidency, the President has to stop working and start campaigning and not pass any laws that might come back to haunt them come re-election time. Not very efficient or productive.
History shows that minus the rare exception, most incumbants will re-election therefore the face of politics won’t change. It spares the voters two more years of primary hell and actually allows the Executive branch some freedoms as they no longer have to worry about the polls or being re-elected or pressures from their party. The President can actually try to do what is right rather than what is popular.
Novel idea….efficient & effective Presidency.
It amazes me when I read this blog how little exercised the rightwingers of the world are over the undemocratic aspects of our system of voting and representation in Congress! What is the point today of representing states rather than people in Congress! Oh, I know, it allows rural, backward, poorly educated parts of the Union to exercise undue influence over the body politic all out of proportion to their numbers. That, of course, can only be an advantage to Republicans.
Mr. Hightower, your “full quotes” by socialist Democrats only serves to more fully demonstrate their eagerness to seize the 401-k money.
I have the entire transcripts, but they are too long to post, and your ilk doesn’t read the truth, anyway.
What do you personally expect to get out of an Obama regime?
A lot of the Obamanoids are panting for cash reparations. Others are just in it for the hate, the desire to punish us achievers.
“It amazes me when I read this blog how little exercised the rightwingers of the world are over the undemocratic aspects of our system of voting and representation in Congress!” – Rich
If you really want to live in a pure democracy, Rich, you couldn’t be more than 15 years old, or, at most, a college freshman.
Read de Tocqueville, son. Or Dr. Seuss. Your choice. Whatever floats your leaden boat.
If, instead of being filled with a traditional narrative of US history that silences the voices of our minorities who have struggled against oppression, you knew what modern scholarship has unearthed–the horrors of Jim Crow, of “Redemption,” and the contract-labor system that lasted until 1943–you might be more sympathetic to the call for reparations.
Although of Latin and Catholic heritage, I consider myself white, and I say to all my white fellow citizens, we need to consider some form of reparations to African Americans for what they and their ancestors have suffered in what one modern scholar has called our “slave-holding republic.” Because that’s what it was, and we live with the baleful consequences of that today.
Still, I have hope. The rich diversity of American culture in a society that is always vibrant and forward-looking says to me that the US still is the world’s beacon of a unique form of democratic republicanism–a form of government based on ideas rather than race or religion. That’s novel in a world full of national states and religious fanatics.
Vote Obama. Vote for the future.
What value does the Cemocrat’s ghetto culture of lazy, illiterate drunks, whores, and race hustlers bring to American society?
Those people need to stop playing victim, and follow the example of immigrants who came here with nothing and made something of themselves by hard work.
The so-called “black leaders” like Obama never hold a real job, and attack blacks of achievement like Colin Powell and Clarence Thomas with the most vile racial slurs.
You like both candidates? Do you not find it morally indefensible to heap a debt of trillions of dollars onto the unborn generations of this country so that we can enjoy a higher standard of living now? That’s not freedom. That’s not what this country stands for. Neither candidate will reduce this debt. In fact, both of their tax plans would increase it!
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411750_updated_candidates_summary.pdf
Democrat’s entire plan to abolish 401-k plans
http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/testimony/2008-10-07-TeresaGhilarducci.pdf
* Abolish the 401-k, SEP, and Roth IRA plans
* Sell off the stocks to convert to cash
* Roll the cash over into an account “managed by the federal government”
* Those with not IRA accounts will get a new one, with $600 to start it off.
* Pay you 3% interest on your cash.
* You can make no more contributions on your own.
* The IRS will deposit $600 each year in everyone’s account
* Some accounts with “excessive balances” may be reduced through asset taxation
* You will pay up to full income taxes when you withdraw funds.
* You cannot withdraw funds until you are 64 years old.
* The IRS can take your funds any time to pay income, payroll or other taxes you owe.
Special treatment for union members, government workers and teachers:
* Bankrupt union pensions will be guaranteed by the federal government.
* Underfunded state and teacher pensions will be guaranteed by the federal government.
Zolpidem.
Zolpidem.
Repeal of the 12 amendment might also lead to more elections being decided by the House of Rep.