Let the Popular Vote Decide the Presidency

I can’t believe that Al Gore has decided not to take on George W. Bush again in 2004 (Dec. 16). If history repeats itself, he definitely has a chance. In 1888, Democrat Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to Republican Benjamin Harrison. Four years later, Cleveland reclaimed the White House after winning the election over Harrison and Populist Party candidate James B. Weaver. If it could happen then, it should have a chance of happening in 2004.

If history has no chance of repeating itself, much of the blame lies with members of the media who have labeled Gore a loser, despite the fact that he won the popular vote in 2000. The biggest blame, however, should go to the electoral college, which should be trashed completely. This fiasco could have been avoided if our presidents were chosen by the popular vote alone. It’s time to let the people, rather than the Supreme Court, decide who our next president will be.

Ken MacLeod

Simi Valley

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Democratic pollster Mark Mellman is obviously relieved when he claims that, with Gore in a 2004 campaign, “inevitably there’d be a sense among the public the race was just a rehash of a decision people thought they’d already made.” Mellman should remind himself that those “people” did indeed make a decision at the last election. They voted for Gore.

Jim Carlile

Burbank

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I’m puzzled by Mark Z. Barabak’s statement (news analysis, Dec. 16) that only hard-core partisans (presumably Democrats) question the legitimacy of President Bush’s election. In truth, anyone with an ounce of intellectual integrity -- whether Republican, Democrat or, like myself, independent -- realizes that five rogue Supreme Court justices awarded the presidency to Bush when it became obvious that the voters had not done so. Assertions such as Barabak’s stand as part of the ongoing effort by the media to confer a mantle of legitimacy on Bush, which voters have never done.

Jon Krampner

Los Angeles