The Worst Democrat

What the polls cannot show, however, are the ways in which eliminating the Electoral College would change the nature of our political campaigns. For an idea of what those changes might be, just look at how the 2000 presidential campaign would have played out if George W. Bush and Al Gore had been trying simply to win the popular vote, rather than crafting their strategies to capture a majority in the Electoral College.

Start with the candidates’ schedules. In the closing days of the campaign, Bush and Gore spent most of their precious time stumping in those famous “key battleground states”—places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, and Missouri, which had enough electoral votes to attract a lot of candidate attention. In practical terms, that often meant going to relatively small cities in an effort to lock up a state’s electoral votes. In early November, Gore paid visits to towns like Ames, Iowa, Las Cruces, N.M., and Huntington, W. Va., while Bush spent time in places like Duluth, Minn., Albuquerque, N.M., and Little Rock, Ark.

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Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is a National Review contributing editor.

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What the polls cannot show, however, are the ways in which eliminating the Electoral College would change the nature of our political campaigns. For an idea of what those changes might be, just look at how the 2000 presidential campaign would have played out if George W. Bush and Al Gore had been trying simply to win the popular vote, rather than crafting their strategies to capture a majority in the Electoral College.

Start with the candidates’ schedules. In the closing days of the campaign, Bush and Gore spent most of their precious time stumping in those famous “key battleground states”—places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, and Missouri, which had enough electoral votes to attract a lot of candidate attention. In practical terms, that often meant going to relatively small cities in an effort to lock up a state’s electoral votes. In early November, Gore paid visits to towns like Ames, Iowa, Las Cruces, N.M., and Huntington, W. Va., while Bush spent time in places like Duluth, Minn., Albuquerque, N.M., and Little Rock, Ark.