Hertzberg: 'Bush II is just a twerp'

New Yorker "Talk of the Town" writer Henrik Hertzberg discusses, among other things, the efficacy of the National Popular Vote movement, which calls for a reform of the electoral process:

It would consist of a series of bills passed in the state legislatures, identical bills, that would each say our state will cast our vote for the winner of the national popular vote. And it will do this when and only when enough states will do the same to constitute a majority of the electoral vote. You wouldn’t have to abolish the electoral vote. It would be a constitutional change without changing the constitution -- a change in the British sense....The Electoral College would meet and vote and there would be a popular vote. You see how the mechanism works. The only thing that matters is who gets the most votes. It would be a huge change. It wouldn’t only mean that we would never have another 2000. That hardly ever happens. It would change the way things happen right away, the way presidents run for president. It means political organizing and activism would be worthwhile from coast to coast.

Of course, this renders the Electoral College redundant while preserving its essentials. More democratic than what we've got now. A refreshing point: we agree that the aura around the Founding Fathers is beginning to seem like plastic wrap around the head of a sleeping man.