Today’s Links: November 5, 2012

OPINION

MIKE BOSTOCK and SHAN CARTER: “512 Paths to the White House”
“If Mr. Romney loses Florida, he has only one way to victory: through all the other battleground states. He has led most polls there, however, and is the favorite. If Mr. Romney wins Florida, he has 75 paths open to him.”

GROVER G. NORQUIST and ANDREA CAMPBELL: “Are Taxes Too Damn High?”
“The U.S. government was created to maximize liberty. Unlike the European nations Campbell offers as models for how much Americans should be taxed, the United States was not organized around defending or promoting historical land claims or one religion, tribe, or ethnicity. Americans are a people of the book: the Constitution. According to the founders, government should play a limited role in the lives of Americans, by providing for a common defense, the rule of law, property rights, and a justice system that protects them.”

DAVID WEIGEL: “Coal Country and Obama: Much Ado About Not Much”
“No one should doubt that Mitt Romney will outperform John McCain in the coal countries of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The problem: He can gain tens of thousands of votes there, and still lose, because this vote isn’t growing, and Democrats have already been winning with smaller margins of it.”

NEWS

ELECTION – Why Do We Vote? Not to Pick the Winner, Probably
“A one-vote win is rare even in local or state races, which attract smaller turnout. The largest numbers of voters – about 6 in 10 eligible adults – come out for presidential years. Yet the presidency’s never turned on just one vote, not even in the 2000 recount that flummoxed Florida. It’s so improbable that scholars debate whether voting is a rational act.

ELECTION – California’s tax measure faces nail-biter finish
“The centerpiece of California Governor Jerry Brown’s plan for repairing the state’s budget hangs on a few votes that on Tuesday will decide if the state hikes taxes or cuts more spending.”

ELECTION – Ryan says Obama compromises Judeo-Christian values
“In a telephone call with evangelical voters Sunday night, U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told potential voters that President Barack Obama’s path for the United States compromises Judeo-Christian values.”