Massachusetts lawmakers join the movement to bypass the Electoral College. Essentially, what they are doing (and it is being done in a number of other states) is passing a law that will require the state's presidential electors to cast their ballots for the candidate that won the most votes nationally, not the one that won the most votes in Massachusetts. Advocates for this approach want to eliminate the Electoral College without amending the Constitution. Since the Constitution (Article II, Section 1) expressly allows state legislatures to choose the manner in which they select their presidential electors, they are within the bounds of the law in doing this.

2010 is shaping up to be the year of the Tea Party voter. I have been saying all along that those who characterize the Tea Party as a bunch of racist, right-wing nuts (which is how many on the Left like to see them) are completely missing the point. The Tea Party movement is simply an expression of anger and frustration with the political system by mostly independent voters, much like the Reform Party was in 1992. It has attracted its share of nuts, as all political movements do, and it can be said that it is made up of mostly white, middle class folks, generally more conservative in their outlook than the country as a whole (but not much more). But it is significant because it points out the anger and frustration, which will come out in spades this November.

Michael Barone has sensed this coming political tsunami for many months, and looking at new polling data and some other signs while examining House races, he sees the Democrats headed for a thumping.

From the Left, Harold Meyerson sees corporations hoarding cash and finding ways to make even more money by not hiring new workers. Ruth Marcus says Congress should let the Bush tax cuts expire.

Japan is facing depopulation over the next four or five decades, and is struggling with a growing population of the old and sick, yet it will not make things easier for immigrants who want to come into the country to work, even the ones need to care for all those elderly folks.

Brian McGrory has a few barbed remarks for Massachusetts Democrats, all well deserved, I think.