Do political commentators understand politics?
I was listening to NPR today and Juan Williams was arguing that it is strange that Obama isn’t picking Clinton for VP. In his mind, she’s the only one that helps him in the polls, and pushes him over 50%, “because that is how you win–get more than 50%.”
Now, you can argue with Williams’ assessment of Clinton’s possible affect on Obama’s chances in the presidential race. But you can’t argue that he’s correct in saying that getting more than 50% of the vote is sufficient to win the presidency.
For the last 232 years the only way to win the presidency has been to get a majority of the electoral college votes. It is certainly possible to win the presidency with less than 50% of the vote, but we can forgive Williams because he would have researched all the way back to 2000 to find an instance of that happening.
These guys are phoning it in. Thanks for your contribution to creating an informed electorate.
