I think most of us on this site are political junkies and the endless discussions about swing states and EV counts, make the presidential race seem like the Super Bowl, however, after the last 3 elections where we have this extremely narrow focus on a handful of states(and now this election playing out the same way), I am starting to think that this cannot be good for the country in the long term.
Is it time to dump the electoral college? I know democrats are approaching the point of having a lock on the electoral college, i think we could easily win the next two or three presidential races in a row...and as a democrat I like nothing more than seeing the teapublicans lose, but I still think its time we ditched the EC system and replace it with direct popular vote and a runoff if someone fails to get more than 50% of the vote.
Realistically I know the only way we get to have a real discussion about this issue, is if we have a reverse 2000. I also don't think the National Popular Vote compact would survive a constitutional challenge.
So the question is, how do we get both parties to agree to change the current system?
When you look at the history of how the role of the presidency has developed over the course of U.S. history, it's pretty surprising that there hasn't ever been a real push to get rid of the electoral college. The EC made sense originally, but pretty early on in our history we as a nation decided to make the presidency something a little different than what the founders had in mind. Today the electoral college makes absolutely no sense and I'm not really sure who would miss it if it were abolished.
A "reverse 2000" would definitely probably get the ball rolling, but to really seal the deal you'd want to have an election thrown to the House. An unlikely scenario, but imagine if Obama won the popular vote but tied Romney in the electoral college 269-269. The House would elect Romney along strict party lines, but I'd think it'd be wildly unpopular. Republicans might agree to back an amendment afterwards in order to save face.
As for the National Popular Vote Interstate compact, the constitutional arguments against it seem pretty weak. It's pretty clear that the constitution gives the states wide latitude in determining how to allocate their electoral votes. The real problem with an interstate compact is that it would lack legitimacy in the eyes of much of the public. It would basically look like a small minority of states trying to mandate a sweeping change for the whole country.
