Obama calls the Electoral College that made him president twice 'a carryover' from the founding

Since Nov. 9, half of America seems keenly interested in the Electoral College: what it does, who’s in it (and their phone numbers), and how quickly America could get rid of it. After all, it’s because of the Electoral College that, as The Hill explained earlier this week, America is held hostage by the flyover states.

The members of the Electoral College voted twice to make Barack Obama president, and we don’t recall him having any complaints about the process either time. At his press conference Friday, though, the president explained that the Electoral College is “a vestige” of an earlier vision of how the federal government would work.

Pres. Obama: Electoral College is a vestige, a carryover, from earlier vision of how US federal gov't would work. https://t.co/93kSShA5p3

— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) December 16, 2016

Pres. Obama calls Electoral College "vestige" from the time of founding fathers at his final 2016 press conference https://t.co/Sdp1HR7nIT pic.twitter.com/Iw1N17DBvM

— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 16, 2016

Obama: "The electoral college is a vestige, a carryover from an earlier vision of how our federal government was going to work." pic.twitter.com/3LuzpfKEvN

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) December 16, 2016

https://twitter.com/KonaStarlight/status/810241901047607296

He’s not wrong, technically speaking — after all, he is a celebrated constitutional scholar. It’s just one more entry in a troubling habit he has of dismissing the documents at the foundation of the United States, though.

In 2001, for example, then-Sen. Barack Obama told an interviewer that the Constitution was “a charter of negative liberties” that fell short of outlining “what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.” Rather, it only specified what the government “can’t do to you” — and that’s exactly what the founders intended.

Twelve years later, as president, Obama told the members of a gun control roundtable that background checks wouldn’t lead to gun confiscation … not because of the Second Amendment, mind you, but because he was “constrained by a system our founders put in place.”

he swore an oath to uphold constitution… Not to trash talk it. There's a process to amend…meanwhile, go play some golf.

— Ike ?? (@ike_salado_tx) December 17, 2016

Frankly, we’ll stick with the vestiges and carryovers of the founders and take a hard pass on the fundamental transformation, thanks.

We understand the president has already landed in Hawaii and hit the golf course, but he might want to bookmark this piece for the long flight back:

Since @POTUS called the #ElectoralCollege a "vestige," here's my explanation of why the Founders created it. https://t.co/Qogyf0Dkfd

— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) December 16, 2016

What a surprise coming from Mr. Pen and Phone.

— Samuel Culper 722 (@politiwars) December 16, 2016

I explained #ElectoralCollege to my daughter's 6th grade history class. They understood it perfectly. 1/2

— VoiceofReason (@VoicingReason) December 17, 2016

https://twitter.com/jnbeidler/status/809936167403667456

https://twitter.com/jnbeidler/status/809936488024670212