Secret service steps up inauguration security - Confident Aren't they?

America hasn't elected Barack Obama President of the U.S. YET.

Yes, we voted. Yes, Obama won the election.

But the President of the United States isn't elected by the American people and never has been.

He (or she someday) is elected by the Electoral College on December 15th.

When we vote in our Presidential election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, we are electing only electors. We elect one elector for each senator and representative our state has in Congress. Washington, D.C. gets electors, but no more than the least populous state.

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December, the electors meet at their state capitals to elect the President of the United States. They vote separately for the President and the Vice President.

The results (sealed) are then sent to Congress for the votes to be counted in a joint session of the houses on the 6th day of January in the next calendar year. It is held at 1:00PM in the Chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Until that time, no one actually knows who is going to be our next President and Vice President! The President and Vice President are sworn in two weeks later.

The reason no one really notices this is that the electors have pledged to vote the way their electoral districts or states (it varies) have told them to vote. So they tend to elect the same candidates that the American people have voted for.

24 states have laws to punish electors who do not vote as pledged but there are no laws FORCING them to vote that way.

If the electors can't agree, then the House and Senate pick our President and Vice President. They've done so three times. The House has chosen our President twice, 1801 and 1825. The Senate chose the Vice President in 1837.

Should the House not be able to choose a President, then the current Vice President (Dick Cheney in this case) becomes our new President until the House picks one. If there is no choice of Vice President, then the Speaker of the House (currently Nancy Pelosi) becomes Vice President.

Now, back to the Electoral College. There is nothing to stop them from choosing Joe Biden as President and Barack Obama as Vice President. Heck, they could choose to elect ME as President and YOU as Vice President if they wished. We don't even have to have expressed an interest in politics.

As the old saying goes, don't count your chickens before they are hatched. Here they are, Obama picking his cabinet, the Secret Service setting up the most secure inauguration in history (I think that they think Obama's race might make him a target) yet there is a very slim chance that Obama could end up watching the inauguration on a TV set in his hotel room wondering "What the F**K happened?"

I'd love to see that happen, though it'd cause riots in the streets as that seems to be the way the majority of Obama supporters express their disapproval with jury verdicts and the like. And to be fair, everyone else that voted for Obama would probably riot as well as most of America has never bother to learn how the election system REALLY works. So they'd wrongly protest "But WE elected Obama!"

If the Electoral College was to do this, I hope they at least pick someone good. Like maybe Ron Paul for President and perhaps Tina Fey for Vice President.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com: "Secret service steps up inauguration security
Posted: 04:55 PM ET

As many as 4 million people are expected to attend Obama's inauguration at the Mall.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Law enforcement officials bracing for the largest crowds in inaugural history are preparing far-reaching security — thousands of video cameras, sharpshooters, air patrols — to safeguard President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in."

(Via CNN Politcal Ticker.)

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