Can Obama truly deliver in tough economic times?

re. Barack Obama makes history

Two things are clear. Barack Obama will have little problem doing better than his predecessor but he will be unable to live up to the massive expectations people have for him.

It is worth noting that despite the massive win in the electoral college, Obama barely outpolled McCain, getting a mere 52% of the popular vote. Will the Americans take this lesson to heart and eliminate the bizarre system that gives their President little cause to seek approval from half the states in their union?

Like our first past the post system, the electoral college's winner take all allocation counts votes unequally. A mere 537 voters in Florida, for example, awarded the 2000 election to Bush despite Gore getting over half a million votes more than Bush nationwide.

This is not a problem that is going to go away. All recent American elections have been close races, whether or not the electoral college reflected that. They will continue to see discrepancies between the college and the popular vote until they decide to trust the citizens to directly elect their president.

Gary Dale