not historically, not for regular folks. certainly not for 102 retired ladies. and after he hosted desiline victor at the state of the union last night and told her story about trying to vote and this problem in our country, president obama then moved on later on in the speech to propose a solution to this problem. we must all do our part to make sure our god-given rights are protected here at home. that includes one of the most fundamental rights of a democracy, the right to vote. when any american no matter where they live or what their party are denied that right, because they can t afford to wait for five or six or seven hours just to cast their ballot, we are betraying our ideals. so tonight i m announcing a nonpartisan commission to improve the voting experience in america. and it definitely needs improvement.
fights have been over voting rights, particularly leading up to this last election and what has been going on in republican-controlled states, it is possible that they should be aiming super, super low, aiming at doing very small reforms simply to show that something can be done, that there can be some nonpartisan technocratic approach to these measures, and that aiming any higher would simply assume that nothing happened? well, i think that, you know, even if this commission wanted to propose federal legislation, the house republicans have already said candice miller, the former republican michigan secretary of state, she is not interested. maybe aiming low is the best they can do in coming up with best practices. i think the biggest way change is going to happen here in the short-term, at least, is through public pressure. so rick scott has now backed away from the bill that he signed and says we need to expand early voting. scott walker in wisconsin, who was supporting at one poin
summer, august. and august 20111, getting all of the troops out of there. the election, period, whether there is going to be a surge in sectarian violence, given the power of the sunnis which turned out in high numbers. what does that mean for our u.s. troops there? that s a question for ordinero, coming up. the baker commission, this is a disaster, falling apart. if you look at today, it does look like a real success from that point certainly. it shows some risk in terms of what potentially could go wrong. there s also a possible engagement with iran if things sort of percolating there. doesn t that put u.s. troops in iraq in jeopardy? so many things. this is interesting. he was over there, and they disqualified sunnis. doing it for the benefit of iran. iran s influence is growing.
and the president is a smart political strategist. what kind of strategy is this? is it hope? is it the same kind and i don t say that dismissively. it is the same kind of hope and optimism and persistent never give uppism that is embodied by desiline victor, is it that kind of hope and persistence and optimism? awesome. but also, is there a plan b if it turns out republicans aren t really going to come around on this and they still feel about this the way they have for years now. joining us is rick hasen at the university of california irvine law school. he writes the election law blog. he is the author of the voting wars. professor, it s great to see you. great to see you. great to be here. i m a political observer on these things. what do you make of the strategy of president obama choosing the top two lawyers from his campaign and mr. ginsberg from the romney campaign to try to head up a commission like this? first of all, if you re going
i m asking two long-time experts in the field, who recently served as top attorneys for my campaign and for governor romney s campaign to lead it. we can fix this. and we will. the american people demand it, and so does our democracy. the president calling on the state of the union for a commission to improve the voting experience in america, to be led by what he called two long-time experts in the field. they are the top attorney for the president s campaign, this man, bob bauer, general counsel for the obama reelection effort. the other top attorney is this man, ben ginsberg, who served as national counsel for the mitt romney campaign in 2012. so one chairman from the