As a follower of politics, I love seeing all the hair-brained ideas that sprout up from time-to-time arguing for this change or that, without really considering what would happen if it was actually put into practice.

We live in a federal republic. Big states have a larger share of influence, but smaller states still maintain at least some balance through the equal representation in the Senate.

The Electoral College was part of this framework. Presidential candidates had to win at the state-level, but an enormous win in one state couldn't skew the entire result.

On Friday, February 26, California Assemblymember Kristin Olsen and State Senator Anthony Cannella, with the support of the Independent Voter Project, filed a resolution with the California State Assembly urging Secretary of State Alex Padilla to create an additional nonpartisan, presidential ballot that lists all presidential candidates, regardless of party.

“Realignment.” Get used to that word because we are going to be hearing it a lot in the next few months. American political parties realign themselves every 40 or 50 years, as governing coalitions emerge, break up, and reassemble themselves in new combinations. The phenomenon of realignment--if not actually part of the design of the country--was at least anticipated in Madison’s great Federalist #10, which argues that, for a republic to remain free, factions must never become permanent.

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Barack Obama and leading Republican presidential candidates have called for increasing defense spending. However, given the opportunity to make their own defense budget, a majority of voters (61 percent) cut defense spending in a new in-depth survey released today by Voice Of the People. Not even a majority of Republicans made increases.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton swept the hardest hit of the Rust Belt states, with Barack Obama taking two on the fringe--his home state of Illinois and Wisconsin.

As the 2016 campaign unfolds, with Michigan the first Rust Belt state to vote, Bernie Sanders made an unexpected push to win by the slimmest of margins (49.9-48.2 with 97 percent reporting). All the major polls had Clinton winning--and winning big in Michigan.

Michigan hurts my own predictions:

Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and former DNC chair, has committed his superdelegate vote to Hillary Clinton, despite U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders winning Vermont 86.1 percent to Hillary Clinton's 13.6 percent.

Dean was confronted about this on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/706219827535462401

Current primary results have reportedly led GOP leaders to consider a contested convention if Donald Trump falls short of the 1,237 delegates needed to qualify for the nomination.

Three months into the first stage of the presidential election process, the field has narrowed to four candidates on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are battling it out for each state on the Democratic side. In a recent poll, IVN found that if the election were held today, Bernie Sanders would carry the independent vote in a landslide.

Despite increased rumors and evidence of a possible Michael Bloomberg presidential run, the former mayor of New York announced Monday that he is going to stay out of the race. Bloomberg said that a three-way race between him and the Republican and Democratic nominees would possibly benefit only one person: Donald Trump.

As I previously argued that Bernie Sanders’ proposal for a universal single payer health care plan needed work, his proposal for tuition-free college is also on the right track, but could benefit from some modifications. However, it is far from being “pure fantasy” as described in a recent editorial written by Jay Stooksberry on IVN.