We’ve seen various postings on possible nightmare scenarios for Election 2008 so I did some working with the math as well as considering the scenarios suggested on places like Politico.com and came up with a real nightmare. Very unlikely to pan out but not impossible.
How’s this for a nightmare scenario.
McCain 269
Obama 269
McCain wins popular vote narrowly but Obama loses a key state in a close recount which results in the tie.
Election thrown in House where they assign one vote to each state, 26 needed to win.
Thanks to some close races the new House is
Dems: 24
GOP: 22
Even: 4
A couple of the Dem states are ones that voted for McCain while the GOP states are pretty much all for McCain in the Presidential race so there is pressure on a couple of the Democratic congressional delegations to vote with state and not party.
Unlikely yes, but probably 5% chance of it happening.
Cross posted to The Square Deal