Election '08 Undecided: Up in the Air For Me
Bob Barr's still out there, though I have to admit Dr. Paul and I only agree on a couple of axes, and I eliminated C. McKinney instantly — I'm not just going to vote any old woman or African-American into office.
But I get another few days to ponder. I love the "window shopping" experience...
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
Does California do the early voting thing?
Reply to this
Yes; I believe they do. I've got my ballot around here somewhere; it would at least be nice to have it pre-filled in before I go in to vote, but I usually end up winging it.
In the olden days, I seem to recall, one could vote for POTUS and VPOTUS a la carte... is that right? I was thinking of voting OBAMA / PALIN this year, but Wrymette informs me the tickets are fixed -- you have to vote either (R) for both, or (D) for both, or [now I presume] Libertarian for both, etc.
How disappointing, if true.
But the question for those of us allegedly old enough to remember: were we able to pick and choose between parties, back in the day, for VP and P? Or is my memory wrong?
Reply to this
I don't remember that feature - but I do know in the early days of the Republic the runner-up became Vice President. To wit:
"Most historians believe that Alexander Hamilton first proposed the office of vice president. Not all the delegates to the Constitutional Convention supported the idea. But on Sept. 6, 1787, the convention approved his proposal. The Founding Fathers originally provided that the person who received the second highest electoral vote for president should become vice president. Electors had two votes, which they cast for the two people they considered best qualified for the presidency. Under this system, John Adams became the first vice president and Thomas Jefferson the second.
Adams and Jefferson developed different views of the vice presidency. Adams wrote his wife: "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Jefferson declared that "the second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery."
The rise of political parties caused the breakdown of this election system. In 1796, the Electoral College gave the greatest number of votes to Adams, a Federalist. Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, received the next largest number of votes, and became vice president. The conflicting party loyalties of the two men created discord in the administration.
In 1800, Jefferson and Aaron Burr both ran as Democratic-Republicans. They tied with 73 electoral votes each, and the election was given to the House of Representatives, where each state has one vote in a presidential election. Burr hoped for Federalist support, and tried to be elected president instead of vice president. But he failed. After 36 ballots, Jefferson won a majority of the votes, and Burr became vice president. The system's weakness became apparent during this election. In 1804, Congress adopted Amendment 12 to the Constitution, which provided for separate ballots for president and vice president. This solved the immediate problem, but it also lessened the prestige of the vice presidency. The vice president was no longer elected as the second choice for the presidency."
http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/presidents/officevp_histvp
Reply to this