First Thoughts Jude Wanniski November 8, 2000

Those of you who have read my book The Way the World Works , know I view the American electorate as an organic body, with a mind of its own that is as democratic as the financial market. It is the family write large as the national family. This morning's absolute balance in that "mind" in the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush and in the congressional races tells me that the electorate wishes the two parties to end the bickering that has been characteristic of national politics over the past half century and work together. In other words, it is the most positive statement the electorate could possibly make, and it is being made through the exquisite venue devised by our Founding Fathers as the Electoral College.

Yesterday afternoon, believing Bush might win the popular vote but that Gore would win in the Electoral College, I wrote my "memo on the margin" for today "In Defense of the Electoral College." It is running now as my weekly column at http://www.worldnetdaily.com and on the home page of the Polyconomics website, http://www.polyconomics.com. In other words, I made the argument that if Gore did win without the popular vote, it would be fully in accord with our form of representative democracy and should be viewed as being sound. The fact that this now turns around, with the possibility that Bush will lose the popular vote but win by a single vote in the Electoral College, has the same meaning.