OPINION
23
Texas Wants to Secede? That Sounds Great!
Democrats would love to have state's 34 electoral votes back
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Apr 17, 09 1:31 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Rick Perry’s talk of seceding from the union might seem crazy, but calling the Texas governor's bluff would be a great deal for Democrats, writes Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com. Consider:
- Democrats would suddenly have a filibuster-proof majority in the 98-seat Senate.
- Republicans would lose eight more House members than Democrats.
- George W. Bush would never have been elected.
- Barack Obama would have won the Electoral College 389-147 rather than 365-173; most of Texas’ electoral votes would go to left-leaning states like California and New York.
- There’d be a case for making football an Olympic sport, “which would sure as hell beat rhythmic gymnastics.”
“This all sounds like a pretty good deal to me,” Silver concludes, “provided there weren’t import duties on Shiner Bock."