I was just reading my favorite bathroom book, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (2001 edition), and opened it at random to the entry on Rafael Palmeiro.  James writes about the controversy surrounding Palmeiro's being awarded a Gold Glove in 1999 despite playing only 28 games at first base:

"The Gold Glove is decided by what could be called an unconstrained plurality, meaning: 1) A voter can vote for anybody. 2) If the top vote-getter gets 15% of the vote, he wins, the same as if he had received 80%. A voting structure like this is an open invitation to an eccentric outcome. If the United States were to use a system like this to elect the President, the absolutely certain result would be that someone like David Duke, __________ or Warren Beatty would be elected President. If you can win an election with 15% of the vote, sooner or later somebody will. An unconstrained plurality vote gives an opening to someone or something who has a strong appeal to a limited number of people."

Fill in the blank!

Donald Trump.  Gotta be.

Damn.  Cresty beat me to it.  Old guys and their nothing to do...

Actually, we sort of do use plurality in our elections.

The Presidential election is a bit more complex, as it's broken down state-by-state with the electoral college, and if there's not a majority the election is pushed to the House.

But for most elections, we have straight First Past the Post voting. In states where more than two candidates are on the ballot in the final round, this does indeed mean that it's possible to win election without a majority of the vote.

SEE: GEORGE W. BUSH

Posted by bronxcheer on 9/16/2015 4:56:00 AM (view original):
SEE: GEORGE W. BUSH

That one was a clusterfuck for many reasons.

agree, I think he wrote Trump's name in that article. prescient writer?

Posted by uncleal on 9/15/2015 9:22:00 PM (view original):
Actually, we sort of do use plurality in our elections.

The Presidential election is a bit more complex, as it's broken down state-by-state with the electoral college, and if there's not a majority the election is pushed to the House.

But for most elections, we have straight First Past the Post voting. In states where more than two candidates are on the ballot in the final round, this does indeed mean that it's possible to win election without a majority of the vote.

You're right, but for the sake of clarification at some point a presidential candidate has to have a majority to win - either a majority of electors (not popular votes) in the General Election, or a majority of the States in a House of Representatives election.

Trump responds: "I've never heard of Bill James.  My people tell me he's fat and spends a lot of time studying baseball statistics, or something like that.  To me, I don't know, that sounds like a loozah -- a YOOGE loozah."

Posted by crazystengel on 9/17/2015 2:29:00 PM (view original):
Trump responds: "I've never heard of Bill James.  My people tell me he's fat and spends a lot of time studying baseball statistics, or something like that.  To me, I don't know, that sounds like a loozah -- a YOOGE loozah."

who did he interrupt this time to utter those profound comments? He seems to interrupt everybody who is trying to fit a word in edgewise. I was cracking up last night in the debates when he interrupted Jeb, blathered on about something in the most simplistic of terms, and then turned back towards Jeb and "allowed" him to continue by saying something like "you can go now". What an ugly douchebag.

Really scary thing is there are people who will vote for him.

Trump combines most of the worst ideas to come out of the GOP in the past decade with the temperment and interpersonal skills of a petulant spoiled toddler.  Can you imagine this guy in a sensitive foreign policy summit with other global leaders?  

Posted by contrarian23 on 9/17/2015 4:27:00 PM (view original):
Really scary thing is there are people who will vote for him.

Trump combines most of the worst ideas to come out of the GOP in the past decade with the temperment and interpersonal skills of a petulant spoiled toddler.  Can you imagine this guy in a sensitive foreign policy summit with other global leaders?  

"I'm going to invade your country. And you're going to pay for it. Like Mexico paid for that wall I built. Because I'm America. And you're all losers."

People like Trump because he's a political outsider, and are fed up with politics as usual. Fortunately there are saner options to get away from politics as usual. #FeelTheBern

I think the scariest thing about Trump is that he's not really worse, and in fact is probably better, than some of the folks he's debating.  He's a vulgarian (any old Spy Magazine readers out there?), but at least he's his own vulgarian.

Posted by crazystengel on 9/17/2015 8:36:00 PM (view original):
I think the scariest thing about Trump is that he's not really worse, and in fact is probably better, than some of the folks he's debating.  He's a vulgarian (any old Spy Magazine readers out there?), but at least he's his own vulgarian.

He certainly beats Scott "Koch Brothers Stooge" Walker but that's not saying much.