AP Wire | 11/24/2004 | Ukraine Awaits Final Election Results

AP Wire | 11/24/2004 | Ukraine Awaits Final Election Results: "Yushchenko on Tuesday claimed victory over the Kremlin-backed prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, in Sunday's run-off election, which many Western observers said was seriously flawed and did not meet democratic standards. While nearly complete official results have put Yanukovych ahead, exit polls showed Yushchenko winning." I first heard about this just 2 days ago. It's funny how there's so much around the world going on involving "tensions." This is one of the main reasons we do not have a popular election of our president (US). What? you say. "Yes we do!" No we don't. The president is elected by a group of electorates designated by each state legislature. The constitution (that old yellow looking paper that still defines the structure of our country, but just barely) only states that-- no popular vote. It's a travesty that the media (with the help of incompetent teaching) has led people to believe that they vote for the president. It's also a myth that the electoral system was put in place simply because, at the time, we didn't have the ability to have direct elections. It was put in place because it was to prevent "mob rule." The authors of the constitution had the wisdom to know that the world is ruled by the aggressive use of force. By providing a non-direct yet fair way of electing the president keeps us from turning into a bunch of mobs (or so it was envisioned, it hasn't always worked obviously, but I think it's been the best system yet).