Illinois Primary Results and Americans Elect
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-03-21/illinois-primary-results-and-americans-elect
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's decisive victory in the Illinois primary puts him closer to the number of delegates needed to win the Republican presidential nomination. He argues that he is better prepared than his opponents to take on President Obama in the general election. A new group called Americans Elect is trying to bypass the primaries altogether. They are turning to the Internet to choose a bipartisan ticket as a third alternative on the ballot in November. Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, John Farrell of the National Journal and Andrew Romano of Newsweek/Daily Beast join Diane to discuss the race. Governor Christine Todd Whitman calls in to talk about Americans Elect and her role on its board of directors.
Guests
Norman Ornstein
resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and coauthor with Thomas Mann of "It's Even Worse Than It Looks" (May 2012)
Christine Todd Whitman
co-chair, Republican Leadership Council - a group that supports fiscally conservative, socially tolerant candidates;
former EPA Administrator (2001-03); former governor of New Jersey (1994-2001)
Andrew Romano
senior writer, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
John Farrell
congressional correspondent, National Journal,author of "Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned" (2011).
Comments
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We elect apologists. I apologize for not telling you how weak and dependent you have become on the federal government. I apologize for letting you believe that you are not more threatened by lightening than threatened by terrorist attack. I apologize for your superficial interest in things that really effect your life. I apologize that you do not understand basic math. I apologize that you elect us by how we look on your boob tube. I apologize for not letting you know how selfish and short sighted you have become. I apologize for not telling you that you live in a world where other people are willing to work harder to take what you feel your entitled too. I apologize for not making it clear that if we hold course everything you take for granted is going to end soon.
The average American homeowner lost $20,000 in the "Great Bush Recession". An apology would be unrealistic from the right wing extremists,but at least they could take responsibility. After all,if you listen to the right wing talkers they tell the listeners to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY !
The two previous posters are correct in their off-topic sarcasm.
Thanks Beauty Shop for the details of our sham elections among Oligarch chosen patsy candidates who are forbidden from addressing real issues.
This morning I have been listening to Democracy Now on the subject of illegal domestic intelligence gathering by the NSA. Of particular interest was the account of exonerated whistleblower Thomas Drake. Our intelligence agencies are not only violating the Constitution (esp. 4th Amendment) but are corrupt and self-serving in their dealings. Can the Beauty Shop straighten up that bad haircut? I think not. There is a covert restraining order keeping real truth tellers out of the Beauty Shop. This has not always been true. Is it under new management? Do you have your tickets for the big Iran fight yet?
I am skeptical of Americans Elect. Is this an attempt to split the moderate vote in order to oust Obama?
Be skeptical but don't worry. American's Elect won't amount to anything, Bigbear. The owners of media will make sure of that. And since the President is jello poured into the Oligarch mold what would it matter anyway? The main reason it will be repressed is because of media ad revenue.
I like the concept of Americans Elect but I've got at least a couple of problems with it for this election.
First, I support Obama and as bigbearsfan pointed out, AE could just have the effect of taking moderate votes from Obama (who's a moderate) and giving electoral votes to MIttens.
Second, AE assumes that the current gridlock is equally the fault of the Democratic "left" (such as it is) and the GOP right. Obama and the Democrats have given concession after concession to the right wing and the Republicans continue to stonewall everything. The GOP's one overriding purpose is to defeat Obama and have shown a willingness to harm the country (not raising the debt ceiling, etc.) in order to do it. How could there possibly be "bipartisanship" when that's all that Republicans care about?
Does anyone believe the current situation would be ANY different if Obama's VP was John McCain - or any Republican, even Sarah Palin?
I would like to know how your organization is different from any third party like Ralph Nader's whose only achievement was to prevent the election in 2000 of the progressive candidate Al Gore in Florida thereby giving us us the war in Iraq, the collapse of our economic system in 2008 and 8 years of conservative government? So, is this a way to prevent Obama from being re-elected by syphoning off votes for him which of course will mean the ultra-conservatives will win and they will do their best to take us back to the 19th century! It is beyond comprehension how anyone can support a third party cndidate after the experience of the 2000 election!
One aspect of the father amazed me...that Pa considered himself to be "above" going out to gather coal, or that he was "above" being seen carrying bags or packages. It seems so arrogant. Was this normal among men of this situation?
I signed on early to AmericansElect. In an evenly split 3-way race (33-33-34%), any candidate could be labeled a spoiler for either of the others. AmericansElect makes this a far more evenly split 3-way race than ever before. But it does even more: it holds out the possibility of being the opposite of a spoiler. Here's how: if its nominee attracts disaffected people from BOTH of the (lobbyist-funded) parties, it pulls toward (finding and revealing) a large majority of people who all agree that the AE nominee will be a BETTER (or more acceptable) president than any of the other candidates on the ballot.
So here is all it takes for AE either to have an influence or to win:
It chooses a nominee that on [because of] one issue, Republicans like better than the Republican nominee, and on one issue (possibly the same issue), Democrats like better than the Democratic nominee.
This should logically push the party candidates to make concessions/changes on the issues that clearly matter, or face actually losing (either losing by a direct majority going to the AE nominee, or by a spoiling/minority effect taking away chunks of their base and chunks of their swing-voters).
In other words, AE offers a way to unite
the anybody-but-the-sitting-president voters with the
anybody-better-than-the-sitting-president voters.
And to answer the caller's question about access to the Internet:
That is an important concern, yet keep in mind 1) that if you're in one party's primary, you're often not allowed to vote in another party's primary, and 2) that even in one party's primary, your actual influence/choice may be diminished depending on when your state votes. AE nominating is done simultaneously nationwide. Finally, 3) it is just a nominating process, so ALL voters in November may vote for the AE nominee, even if they didn't participate in the online choosing of that nominee. (Who, by the way, now has the credibilty/viability shown by winning an online nationwide (at least somewhat populist) process from a huge field of candidates).
Americans Elect-Just one more political party corrupted by money. This is change? Pardon me while I laugh out loud.
As Dr. J. Rufus Fears of the University of Oklahoma has stated: "America shares the fate of all the great empires of the past." You do know where all those great empires are now, don't you?
Americans Elect is a nonpartisan ballot access organization. It offers a choice other than the candidates that are selected by the two political parties. Both parties are attacking it as siphoning off votes from one or the other. Isn't the fact that this organization is being attacked by both parties is a good thing? Its time we pick a President, not a party.
It takes money to navigate the ballot access requirements of 50 states. The duopolistic political parties have erected high barriers to get on the ballot. It takes an organization that can stay on top of all of that and it takes money to pay employees of an organization and build a functional website with necessary security. I have no problem with how AE is structured. It is just as transparent as the political parties are required to be.
I understand folks feeling that "their" candidate might be hurt by the presence of another face in the race. But isn't this at the heart of what many of us are sick and tired of? On any given piece of legislation, it's that way: We can't add that provision, it will dilute the bill and make it easier for the other side to push their version through. We can't pick a compromise number because they'll take advantage and we end up at our own twenty-yard line. We can't support anybody from the opposite camp or we'll be traitors to the (fill in the blank: liberal/conservative) agenda. We do everything to ensure that one of the major parties win, but does that ensure that we, the People, win? I know that "it could hardly get any worse" may be a cynical-sounding rationale, but more and more people are feeling that it describes their own take on the situation.