Tag Archives: Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton Should Run for President

In eight days, on Monday, December 19th, electors will meet in each state capital.  They will cast their votes for the next President of the United States.  Each elector also will vote, separately, for the next Vice President.  The electors’ votes in each State then will be added up to determine nationwide totals.  In each race, the candidate who receives 270 or more electoral votes will win the office.

Each State’s law provides that its electors shall vote based on popular voting in that State.  At this time, popular vote counts indicate that Donald Trump is entitled to 306 electoral votes, and that Hillary Clinton is entitled to 232 electoral votes.  Although some States are still completing their initial counts of absentee, military, provisional, and other ballots, and although a few States are recounting votes, it is not expected that the popular vote winner in any State will change.  Thus while Clinton won the national popular vote by over 2.6 million votes (at present count), 48.2% for Clinton to 46.3% for Trump, he won enough States to earn more than 270 electoral votes, if each elector votes based on his or her State’s popular vote.

Trump will be elected president, however, only if a sufficient number of electors do cast their ballots for him.

The Electoral College was not created to be an unthinking rubber stamp.  And across U.S. history, some electors have voted other than as-pledged, choosing not to vote for a candidate whom they regarded as unfit for or undeserving of the office.  Indeed, it’s reasonable to assume that most electors across U.S. history have voted not as automatons, but based on reflection and then a personal decision that the candidate to whom the elector was pledged, the candidate who won the popular vote in the elector’s State, was fit to be president or vice president.

For honest, conscientious 2016 electors, which I sincerely assume each of them to be, there are numerous, powerful reasons to think about voting for Clinton, not Trump, including:

  • Most of the voters preferred Clinton;
  • U.S. government intelligence agencies have determined that Russian government espionage helped Trump significantly, including by injecting information into the campaign that depressed Clinton vote totals, especially in States she lost narrowly;
  • Trump’s business dealings, including with foreign governments, pose grave questions of conflict of interest, illegality, and disloyalty to the U.S.; and
  • Trump’s proposed nominees to Cabinet and other high offices include persons whose beliefs and policy commitments run against the best interests of the U.S. and its people.

This week, the week before electors will cast their ballots on December 19th , is the time for these very serious political arguments.

Donald Trump, conducting himself as president-elect, is in effect continuing to argue that the electors should elect him.

For the sake of the country, Hillary Clinton should complete her campaign for president by joining, by rebutting, that argument.  I don’t believe that the odds are in her favor.  But if—

  • if she gives voice, thoughtfully, to all of the issues that now surround who should be the next president;
  • if she explains why she should be chosen and how she would work, in assembling a government and in pursuing policy priorities, to repair wounds and advance the life of every American;
  • if she articulates a “unity, especially now” vision, including how we could get past the anger that her election would cause…

*          *          *

Clinton, in this final week of campaigning, would be doing best her chosen tasks, running for and preparing to be President of the United States.  And she would be doing everything that she could, which is what we reasonably ask of our presidential candidates, to serve and protect a great America.

Thirty-eight electors in States where Trump won the popular vote have the power, personally and legally, to elect Hillary Clinton.

She should seek, with everything she’s got, their votes.

A Place on the Raft

Last May, the Federal Reserve Board published a comprehensive Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2015.  The report, based on extensive survey data, portrays many who financially are doing okay or better, and many who are not.

A highlighted statistic that startles:  46% of adults could not cover a $400 emergency expense without selling something or borrowing some money.  (Hat tip to New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson for remembering and writing yesterday how startling these data still are.)

The Fed report sits alongside U.S. Census Bureau data showing that household incomes grew significantly in 2015.

These data are not inconsistent—“doing better” can be a recent, good turn in a life of “still struggling.”

I am pretty sure that many people in the U.S. voted last week for a candidate who as president would, they hoped, improve their circumstances.  And I suspect that those voters—some for Clinton, some for Trump, and some for fringe candidates—add up to a very large number.

I hope that their votes all get counted, and that they win.  In a decent society, the project of all, including government, should be to insure that every person has basic security—a place on the raft.

private-swim-raft-for-your-enjoyment

Is Hillary Clinton the U.S. President-Elect?

On this Saturday morning, three days since Hillary Clinton conceded the presidential election:

  • Clinton has a counted vote lead in the nationwide popular vote of about 400,000. That does not matter because, of course, we choose presidents by electors.
  • Each State determines its electors, however, based on the popular vote in the State.
  • Based on current popular vote totals translated into electors, Donald Trump has 290 electoral votes—20 more than the total needed to become president—and Clinton has 228.
  • Two States, Michigan (16 electoral votes) and New Hampshire (4 electoral votes), have not been decided—those vote counts are ongoing.

So how close to completed, or not, are the popular vote counts in States, and especially in the States that are apparently very close and definitely are/will be decisive?

For example, in Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), awarded to Trump by the media and color-coded maps we’ve all seen, Trump leads by about 69,000 votes out of about 5.8 million cast.  Have all Pennsylvania votes in fact been counted?  If not, will they be?  If so (and if when), is the margin so close that we—Clinton, yes, and also Trump, and also all of the people in the United States—have an interest to recount, to be sure we know who the voters chose?

And also Wisconsin.  Its 10 electoral votes also have been awarded to Trump.  The reported vote margin in Wisconsin is about 27,000 votes, out of more than 2.8 million votes counted.  Have all the Wisconsin votes been counted?  And is the race so close that they should be recounted?

If a majority of voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, she is President-elect, even if New Hampshire voters chose Trump.  Or she should be.

Shouldn’t we figure that out?

Why aren’t people asking these questions?

Please get her to the polls!

Here is a CNN report on Clarina (“Mimi”) Hudon of Manchester, New Hampshire.  Born in 1905, she now is age 110.  She is believed to be the oldest person in the state.

If Mrs. Hudon had been born a little earlier, she would not have been able to vote when she reached adulthood. But when she was fifteen years old, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the vote, was ratified.  In 1928, she voted in her first presidential election, casting her vote for the Democrat, New York governor Al Smith.

Mrs. Hudon knows of Hillary Clinton.  And now she’s heard of Bernie Sanders.

Some New Hampshire official should make it possible for her to vote next Tuesday, for one of them or for whomever.