about one hundred seventy plus electoral college votes have side nonsense that if an electoral college majority of states signs on to this plan it will go into action so all it really needs is a few more states to side under this and it will be a reality i think it's going to be a reality i think the arguments against this are pathetic i think they're undemocratic i think they're frankly un-american i think this is going to be a reality i think it's a matter of when not you know. definitely would be quite a good and interesting change they have thanks so much for joining us tonight. but you. are just ahead on tonight's show the g.o.p. is turning this whole debate around contraceptives into an all out war and if you're the party darlings are really using strong words against president obama so we're going to have more in our tools i am happy hour to get that story about in says that we tease you so much about yesterday and the steve jobs the f.b.i. file has been released so i look in the some of the details. well you know if you're in. new zealand in the early ninety's you get to the mo

electoral college votes that are now signed on to the national popular vote plan that is so. states representing about one hundred seventy plus electoral college votes have side nonsense but if an electoral college majority of states sides on to this point it will go into action so all it really needs is a few more states to sign it under this and it will be a reality i think it's going to be a reality i think the arguments against this are pathetic i think they're undemocratic i think they're frankly on america and i think this is going to be a reality i think it's a matter of whether or not you know. definitely would be quite a good and interesting change they had thanks so much for joining us tonight thank you. i just ahead on tonight's show the g.o.p. is turning the fall debate around contraceptives into an all out war and i think the party darlings are really using strong words against president obama so we're going to have more in our told time and again happy hour we'll get to that story about incest you so much about yesterday and the steve jobs the f.b.i. file has be

it involves the voting for the president. >> oh, electoral college! i know this. i learned this in sixth grade. i'm sorry. i still don't know. [ laughs ] it just rings a bell. >> the electoral college is a system that was put in place by the founders in the constitution, and it is the process by which we elect presidents every four years. but, essentially, it gives states the right to elect a president rather than through a direct popular vote. >> just so we're clear, when americans vote, their votes don't go directly to the presidential candidates. rather, the votes go to electors in the voters' state. it's these electors, not the people who went to the polls, who actually vote for the president. that's why, during the election, you'll often hear the term electoral votes. the number of electoral votes each state gets depends on two things. first, every s guarante electoral votes. >> the idea is to have each state have a certain weight. the focus for the founders was not letting the large states get more power than the small states. >> and that brings us to the se

obama but he will not win the electoral college. that's what's in the constitution.ou are being funded by individuals who are democrats, large donor democrats. do you know that by having an election so that individuals, the total population, how could you run a presidential candidate when in states like california, york and illinois will come in with large pluralities, probably stolen pleurallities in those states to win for the democrats. host: i'm going to stop you there so we have time to respond and a follow from an earlier viewer who wants to know who are the major voters to fairvote.org. so on both points, electoral college, the president's re-election effort and your donors. guest: we are not a democratic stocking horse. our long-time chair and his 90th birthday is this week so i want to give a shout out to him is john anderson was in 1980, independent candidate for president and john was an independent, challenging the outside of the major parties and that really is a reflection of the fact that we are trying to put voters first and we look at the national po

they also knew that they were fairly equally balanced in terms of the electoral college and therefore, the winner of the election was likely to be the person who carried a majority of the most pop loss states. there were seven key states in 1960. new york, ohio, michigan, illinois, texas and california and largely the same states that are important today and florida hadn't made it to the list yet, and if you could carry four out of seven of those you probably would win and if you carried five out of seven there was almost no way you could lose. interestingly enough in 1960 all of those states were fairly competitive. it was not a case that either side could really totally write off any of the big seven, and so both candidates made major efforts to win those seven. joe kennedy had, maybe back in '56, had figured out that kennedy's catholicism could give him an edge in new york and pennsylvania, states that had large numbers of catholics and where catholics after world war ii had begun to move away from the democratic party especially catholics who moved out of philadelphia and new york

. >> hmm. 303 electoral college votes, according to scientists at ya hugh.com, how many president obamato keep the white house. how do the scientists know? they don't. it's a guess based on an equation. the media research center says you need to consider the source. so, tim, what is the source? >> well, for one, one of these two bloggers that is making this estimate has a background in democratic politics and spent more than three years running a web site called the dem store, where you can get all your john kerry and howard dean bumper stickers. so this to me seems like a poll that you throw out there to try to say, let's keep the democrats happy. let's have a little spring in their step and let's make sure they keep donating to us. it doesn't make any sense otherwise. >> so it was rigged by people who want to make president obama look good. i've got another question. why come out with a poll about likely electoral college votes in february when the election doesn't take place until november and we don't have the republican candidate nailed down yet? >> exactly. i think -- if somebody

james monroe took exception to the electoral college. after washington and his fellow delegates affix signatures to the final parchment. the battle brings us back to the dichotomy between the controlling washington and the reluctant executive. it may seem inconsistent but it explains as much as anything can, why americans distrustful of centralized rule were willing to take a chance on nationhood under the constitution. and it hopefully explains why i have spent so much time this evening grounding washington's performance as president in events leading up to april 1789. for the character of the office is a direct reflection of washington's values and the unique credibility he enjoyed even among those who feared the loss of state and local sovereignty in the new federal structure. character counts. washington said as much in his first inaugural address with the elegant tribute to the sacred fire of liberty, first on the revolutionary battle fields, there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists an indissolvable union

as well as the president is doing, go to the electoral college, which is how this is decided. there's few states that senator mccain won that the president has a good chance to win. arizona is one. after that, it's a big drop-off. if the republican nominee emerges from the contest, whatever month it is, handling him or herself well, then they -- i think they get back to basically those 200 electoral votes and can build off that. i think you'd hear the same description of what's likely to happen in chicago. if the republican nominee handles it poorly, i think the president's numbers will really help him to get a bigger win than four years ago. >> the fundamentals are even steven. they have to get competent by november. you buy that? >> i do. gas can still hit $6 a gallon. unemployment is still high. i mean romney should be up by 20 points given those circumstances on those fundamentals. but yet the campaign has been awful for him and the whole republican brand. he's falling behind. the risk here for the republicans is that there's no opportunity to bounce back later. the impres

one of the things i feel that has gotten loss, talking more about the electoral college is the battlegrounde doing it every week you sort of tinker with it. charlie, i have yours up here first. you have more swing states, quite a few than stu does. yours are predictable. nevada, colorado, iowa, wisconsin, michigan. might be a little bit of surprise to people in michigan. pennsylvania, virginia, north carolina, florida. in general, the folks over in chicago would agree with but they would probably say arizona should be light pink is the argument they would make. stu, fewer swing states. more light blue on here and a few light pinks. i think the folks in chicago would be very upset to see those southern states of virginia and north carolina in light pink. ohio they secretly wouldn't be disagreeing with you. florida is a tossup and wisconsin, iowa, colorado, nevada. so let's talk about the sort of the three that i think you both seem to agree on. florida, colorado, wisconsin. there's one in each region. >> yeah. i think florida is an age issue. there's an age problem. white older -- whites ove

wins pretty easily in the electoral college. holds the entire south, as he would every single southern state in all of roosevelt's four elections. usually by majorities of 60% or more. willkie's strength is confined to the plain state area and the midwest, primarily. it's a pretty thumping victory for roosevelt. certainly not a ratification of the idea that america should get involved in the war, but a ratification of this idea that roosevelt pushes right at the beginning of his third term in office. by the way, of course, the erection will have 1940 shatters what? the three-term tradition. why was roosevelt able to shatter the three-term tradition and win a third term? something no one else had ever done. >> i guess he broke the two-term tradition primarily because of his incredible -- >> i'm sorry. i meant two-term. >> -- his incredible charisma. >> that's part of it. but there's something more fundamental operating here. >> a desire not to change in the middle of a war. >> exactly. we're not in the war, but the war is going o

president obama would need to capture the district of columbia and these 22 states to reach 270 electoral college votes. i think we're hoping for a map there but, stay with me. those are the states, yeah, that the president would need to capture. by contrast, here's the president's electoral road map back in 2008. as you can see it is a very different picture from the way the situation stand today. perhaps the biggest obstacle this time around is the state of georgia. in that breakdown he would have to win georgia and not likely that he would be able to do that. i believe this is the way the approval ratings stand today for the president. states that would go for him outlined there in blue. the big problem, he would need to carry states where his combined average of approval rating is just about 43% that is well belong the long established 50% threshold. with us, columnist for rollcall and editor of the rothenberg political report, stuart rothenberg. stuart, thanks for being with us. we've thrown out a lot of numbers. my words didn't match the maps so i think it is confusing to our audience right

fourteen states states which represent two thirds of the electoral college votes needed to win the presidency have already passed several measures these include restrictions on where people can register to vote last time for early voting and stricter laws requiring people to provide government issued photo i.d.'s african-americans or other ration of minorities are very heavily targeted a poor those who don't drive cars or have cars are also very targeted hilary shelton washington d.c. the n.w.c. peter rector says the policies hearken back to the days of jim crow bringing back old obstacles thought to be eliminated by the voting rights act of nine hundred sixty five the most basic rights of all. are the right to choose your own leader. the history of this country in large measure. is the history of the expansion of that right. to all of our people history now reversing itself with new laws also targeting convicted felons who have completed their sentences have jobs and pay taxes in florida iowa virginia and kentucky anyone convicted of a felony has their right to vote denied permanently if the

twenty two states considering these photo voter photo id laws account for two hundred sixteen electoral college votes that's eighty percent of the votes necessary to win the presidency of the united states when the norm is corporate spending thanks to citizens united and union membership steadily declining that other twenty percent shouldn't be too difficult for the republicans to pick up. you know our elections should not be a partisan issue and the fact that they are shows just how deep the subversion of our of them of our democracy goes we need public funding of elections and we need it now and then that's the big picture for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to tom hartman dot com free speech dot org norty dot com also checkered to you tube channels there are links at target dot com also tom foreman dot com check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback and don't forget as tom always says democracy begins with you get out there get active tag you're it. the violence in syria the lies but the world is left guessing about what's actually happening as

came and did something that had not been done for'ons where you -- ions where you accept the electoral college and members arrived in washington, went on the floor and respectfully objected one after another. you can see that it is a place where much may not be written, but we are grateful for the work they have done. i encourage you in the last lawyer's closing to visit so sojourner truth who we hope to move in the rightful place, the only african-american in the united states congress in legislation that i introduced, and we placed her in the united states capitol just a few years ago with the support of all the members of the congressional black caucus, and certainly, at that time, senator hillary clinton. we can do things, together, collaborate, but never leave who we are outside the door for the history is too precious to leave behind. thank you congressman and congresswoman. [applause] with that note, another round of applause for our sponsor, congresswoman wilson. [applause] thank you, all, for this wonderful program and have a wonderful black history month. [applause] >> you're watchin

i think he will do well here you should know after he nailed down the number of electoral college delegates in the last election, his first stop was in st. paul, minnesota. because he knows this is obama territory. people here do believe in the idea everybody counts, everybody matters, this is the home of wellstone, we all do better when we all do better. i think obama will do just fine right here in minnesota. >> well, i did run in a number of people in the last couple days who were anti-obama but don't know who they want to vote for on the conservative side. is there enough --. >> we got some of those, too. >> i know. is that anti-obama sentiment enough to carry minnesota for the republicans? >> no way. let me tell you as i talk to folks all over and again, i'm here at susan b. anthony middle school where folks are fired up on a night when we have our candidate already locked in we have a full room, people are still coming in to be part of the democratic precinct caucuses. this is because we have a high degree of enthusiasm. people are excited, we have seen republicans in the majority of

. >> the electoral college system is the dumbest thing ever. maybe it was okay back in the day, but now it has to go. you can read that on my blog. >> 18 and over. >> you were saying in the green room and i found this interesting that you would like to see what obama could do with a second term. please explain. >> how fast he could take the country right off the edge of the cliff. that's what he is planning to do. the primary reason why he meeds to be defeated. >> all right. is this dude serious about rick santorum? more like is this ad serious, am i right? >> i don't know what you are right about. that obama thing he completely made up with the ambassador. i feel like this show is off the rails. let me try and bring it back. >> we are in trouble now. >> we are. >> ron paul, you already got the kids. the kids like you. using the word dude, and then it got worse. he actually had a tie dye motif and it said not groove vee. don't try to appeal with the language. >> i think the groovy was a point about something in the 60s. if santorum gets the nom

. >> the electoral college. >> win the popular vote and lose the election. >> right now we are not sure. we think that romney has about five of the districts. we think santorum has four for sure. but this first congressional district is in play. ironically, this right in here this is -- that is the fourth congressional district. >> that's also in play. the districts that are in play are the first, the fourth even though that looks to be solid for santorum. the fifth which encompasses flint and genessy county i pointed this out earlier but this county is slightly in favor of santorum. >> that's where flint is. >> michael moore is from there. one of the greatest documentaries is from flint. that ended up going for santorum. now, down here, of course this is -- these districts going for romney. >> four or five districts down there to give people an idea just how concentrated the people are. right? is it five in the detroit area? five congressional districts compared to one for up. >> it's the largest congressional district. >> that's this whole. >> commercial seats in michigan. >> there ar

. >> romney and santorum match up about the same in the electoral college with one exception. santorum, right now, based on public and private polling, is stronger in the midwestern battleground states. neither of them would be particularly strong with hispanic voters. romney has an edge in florida right now. santorum is strong where romney is weak. the reason there's confidence in the white house and chicago that romney could be beaten is all the thing its you listed. he's a member of the 1%. he has a personality that a lot of people don't cotton to. santorum would excite the base. he comes across as a natural and a genuine guy. also the blue collar cred. on the other hand, he would have to get through the nomination and then withstand $500 million of negative ads. so a snapshot of today is different than come the fall. >> let's look at these guys. let's look at the latest poll numbers here. obama versus romney. and santorum versus gingrich. let's look at those numbers in the latest pew research poll this week. in a general election matchup, the president easily tops mitt rom

there's a huge electoral college reform movement. this is something that's caught hold with the american people. you know from your tour as well. and listening to people, part of the core in the main emphasis of the occupy group has been this whole need for election reform. and as was pointed out, since the election of 2000, i dare say even before that, there's been brave concern about that. it's heightened with the amount of money pouring in and further manipulating the system to the point where both suppression of the vote and preventing people from voting. the statistics that you just rolled off are compelling and should be shocking to most americans. and yet, it seems to be gaining momentum, but unfortunately, not here in congress. but we hope to change that. we hope to get the disclosed legislation on the floor and pass that. and we hope that we're in a position as a majority party come 2012 so we can make significant reform that we don't see emanating right now. >> i'm suspicious of your suggestion that switching parties, with

. >> let's go and take a look at the electoral college score card as well while i have you here. ording to new map, the dems at 227, the gop at 197. that leaves 114 electoral votes in the toss-up column. that's been moved to president obama's favor. why? >> it has. there are pretty much three factors. one, president obama's political standing has improved since the debt ceiling blues back in the summer. you've seen better economic numbers which have obviously helped him. of course, in between the last time we did this map in november and now, we've been in the full throes of the republican primary season. you look at almost all these polling and the divisive primary season has not been good so far for the republican party. >> michigan and arizona, primaries take place tuesday. romney expected to do very well in arizona. but it's close in michigan. with romney and santorum neck and neck. how do you see it playing out there tuesday? >> craig, we had a recent nbc/maris poll that showed mitt romney at 37%, rick santorum 35%. that's a statistical tie. it will be very close. mitt romney

it's going to boil down to individual states because, you know, this is electoral college. mate boil down to a metropolitan state in florida like miami. but, yeah, thing the president would win re-election under those circumstances. >> mark zandi. i always appreciate you make time for me on these monthly jobs fridays. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >>> still ahead, we'll get team obama's take on the brand-new jobs report, but they can't do it until the 8:30 hour. plus, two americans kidnapped in cairo has violence has been erupting in the streets and police clash with protesters. we're going go live to cairo for your all the latest there. >>> from the keystone pipeline to payroll tack hike, escalating between coleman and planned parenthood. we're headed there. first a look at the president's schedule. he's going to arlington county fire station where we expect him to make some remarks about the new unemployment report. you're watching ""the daily rundown"" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff o