Thrown to the House

Everyone likes a good electoral college tie scenario:

It’s not even as simple as separating the red states from the blue states and counting–if that were the case, then John McCain would win flat out. But there are some odd exceptions, like South Dakota, whose electoral votes will likely go to McCain, but whose sole Congressman (if she’s re-elected) is a Democrat, who vote for Obama in the House. Charlie Foxtrot, Batman! Even still, I think if this scenario plays out, then John McCain wins the presidency. Yet another blow for those massively over-represented people who live in tiny states.

We see here that Brian Beutler may be bulletproof, but he doesn’t have the facts. Check out Wikipedia’s map and be astounded by House Democrats’ strength in North Carolina and Tennessee:

Note that the rule governing this scenario is absolutely absurd and there’s no good reason to wait until after something stupid happens to pass a constitutional amendment to change it.

UPDATE: The Rick Hertzberg Fan Club reminds me that National Popular Vote could solve this problem.