Today in history: That pesky Electoral College

If you've been taking in the occasional current discussion about the merits of the Electoral College as a way of choosing presidents, you might be wondering if it's always looked like such a stroke of constitutional genius in the right-wing press. 

Short answer: No. Here, the New York Daily News's Inquiring Fotographer puts the reader-submitted question to half a dozen people (two elected officials, the DMV commissioner, and three Real People, assuming you count "newspaper reporter" as a Real Person), and they're unanimous: Get rid of it. The governor (shown) thinks the popular vote "would be more truly representative of the people's will"; a senator thinks that modern communication has erased sectional differences and the Electoral College "has lost its usefulness"; a homemaker thinks the Electoral College is "silly."

And the reporter? (The story doesn't say whose, but bear in mind that this is Joseph Medill Patterson's News we're talking about here.) Well, somebody has to point out that "the country just discarded its most important tradition in re-electing Roosevelt. Why not abolish the Electoral College?"