political reality has been hard to take this week, so let<u+2019>s end it by indulging in a little fantasy. let<u+2019>s spin out the evan mcmullin scenario. mcmullin, a 40-year-old former congressional staffer and cia officer, is largely unknown, which is to the cia<u+2019>s credit. in august he announced that he would run for president as an independent, and some nevertrump conservatives have embraced him as a candidate they can vote for and still feel good about themselves. to say that mcmullin lacks a path to 270 would be a considerable understatement. according to his website , he is on the ballot in only 11 states with 84 electoral votes. he has achieved <u+201c>write-in status<u+201d> in 31 other states, but c<u+2019>mon. there is, however, one state in which he could be a factor: utah. a deseret news poll earlier this week found mcmullin just four points out of first place in the beehive state, with 22%. donald trump and hillary clinton were tied at 26%, in a state no democrat has carried since 1964. a subsequent survey, from monmouth university , had a somewhat less striking result: trump 34%, mrs. clinton 28%, mcmullin 20%. follow james on twitter this isn<u+2019>t entirely surprising. utah was one of trump<u+2019>s worst states in the spring; ted cruz beat him in the caucuses there, 69% to 14%, with 17% going to john kasich. an estimated 60% of utah<u+2019>s population belongs to the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, and mormons tend to be cheerful and straitlaced<u+2014>think mitt romney<u+2014>and don<u+2019>t take kindly to trump<u+2019>s belligerence and vulgarity. mcmullin himself is a utah mormon, who has his campaign headquarters in salt lake city (as does libertarian gary johnson, the washington post notes). mcmullin could deprive trump of enough votes to hand the state to mrs. clinton, which would add insult to the injury of republican defeat. or he could carry it himself, especially if he also cuts into johnson<u+2019>s vote (14% and 9%, respectively, in the deseret news and monmouth polls). there<u+2019>s even a minuscule chance mcmullin could make it to the white house, as national review<u+2019>s jim geraghty explains. to do so would require depriving mrs. clinton of an electoral college majority, which means trump would have to find a path to 263 (or 258 in the unlikely event johnson were to carry his home state, new mexico). that would mean trump would have to recover from his recent travails everywhere except in utah. that almost certainly won<u+2019>t happen, but again, this is fantasy friday. if no candidate has a majority of the electoral vote, the election goes to congress pursuant to the 12th amendment: to put it in simpler language, the house would choose from among the top three electoral college finishers<u+2014>in this scenario mrs. clinton, trump and mcmullin. (johnson would be eliminated even if he carried new mexico, which has one electoral vote fewer than utah.) but unlike any other house vote, each state votes as a unit, and a majority of the states (26) is required to make a choice. <u+201c>this would give republicans control of the election<u+2019>s outcome, presuming the incoming house doesn<u+2019>t look too different from the current one,<u+201d> geraghty notes. currently republicans have majorities in 33 state delegations, democrats in 14; three are evenly split. <u+201c>would house republicans hand the oval office to a guy who won a negligible number of votes nationwide and only one state?<u+201d> geraghty asks. <u+201c>would those who have stood by trump this far suddenly abandon him and choose the candidate who finished third over the candidate who finished second?<u+201d> it<u+2019>s almost a rhetorical question, but a lot of elected republicans can<u+2019>t stand trump, so for the purpose of today<u+2019>s fantasy, let<u+2019>s assume for a moment the answer is yes. mcmullin goes to the white house. the big loser in this scenario is mindy finn, his running mate (whom this columnist has met, believe it or not). for she would not accompany him. the 12th amendment specifies that in the event that no candidate for vice president has a majority, the senate shall choose a winner <u+201c>from the two highest numbers on the list<u+201d> (emphasis ours). it would be either mcmullin-pence or mcmullin-kaine<u+2014>most likely the former if republicans hold their senate majority and the latter if they lose it. that would be interesting, wouldn<u+2019>t it? on paper mcmullin and pence make a plausible couple, but on twitter mcmullin has scathed pence as <u+201c> trump<u+2019>s number one enabler <u+201d> and someone <u+201c> willing to sacrifice his principles <u+201d> for <u+201c>an opportunity to empower himself.<u+201d> but maybe mcmullin would himself seize the opportunity to reconcile the gop<u+2019>s pro-trump and nevertrump factions. as for mcmullin-kaine, they would be the first president and vice president of different parties since abraham lincoln and andrew johnson<u+2014>and the first involuntary such pairing since john adams and thomas jefferson at the end of the 18th century. but there<u+2019>s one more variation to consider: what if no candidate can command the support of 26 states in the house because of splits among and within gop delegations? in that event, the 20th amendment kicks in: which means if the democrats win a majority in the senate, the mcmullin scenario would yield president kaine. to be sure, none of this will happen, except maybe mcmullin<u+2019>s carrying utah (about a 1 in 6 shot, as per electionbettingodds.com ). the next president will be one of the major-party nominees. we hope you<u+2019>ve enjoyed this break from that reality. we certainly have. we blame george w. bush <u+201c>blame the marmite shortage on brexit?<u+201d><u+2014>headline, nbcnews.com, oct.<u+00a0>13 what would we do without experts? you're gonna need a bigger vote <u+201c>mike huckabee<u+2019>s flawed <u+2018>jaws<u+2019> analogy has trump getting eaten by shark hillary<u+201d><u+2014>headline, federalist, oct.<u+00a0>13 problem and solution the soft bigotry of low expectations <u+201c>jill stein: trump is less dangerous than clinton; she will start nuclear war with russia<u+201d><u+2014>video title, real clear politics, oct.<u+00a0>12 so much for the war on drugs <u+201c>michelle obama goes high while attacking donald trump<u+2019>s <u+2018>locker room talk<u+2019>: <u+2018>this isn<u+2019>t about politics. it is about basic human decency<u+201d><u+2014>headline, salon, oct.<u+00a0>13 let<u+2019>s remember the real victim <u+201c>the <u+2018>locker room<u+2019> line has made me feel personal discomfort. feeling like women look at me and assume i<u+2019>ve been part of that kind of convo.<u+201d><u+2014>tweet, @jonathanchait (new york magazine), oct.<u+00a0>13 with dnc in mind, city bans carrying urine, feces <u+201c>doo doo on u.s. tour as <u+2018>clown ambassador<u+2019><u+00a0><u+201d><u+2014>headline, metro canada (toronto), oct.<u+00a0>13 generalissimo francisco franco is still dead better late than never <u+201c>east grand rapids police tell public to lock cars after larcenies, auto thefts<u+201d><u+2014>headline, oct.<u+00a0>13 make that 5 hey, kids! what time is it? <u+201c>it<u+2019>s time we all really knew what buttermilk actually is<u+201d><u+2014>headline, puffington host, oct.<u+00a0>14 question and answer<u+2014>i question and answer<u+2014>ii question and answer<u+2014>iii question and answer<u+2014>iv question and answer<u+2014>v everything seemingly is spinning out of control <u+201c>a magazine said trump apologized for bombing serbia and all hell broke loose<u+201d><u+2014>headline, buzzfeed.com, oct.<u+00a0>13 news of the tautological news of the oxymoronic <u+201c>the gop should have known they<u+2019>d be blindsided by trump<u+201d><u+2014>headline, nationalreview.com, oct.<u+00a0>13 news you can use <u+201c>soylent now advises customers to discard vomit-inducing food bars<u+201d><u+2014>headline, eater.com, oct.<u+00a0>12 tens, anyone? remember lincoln chafee? he<u+2019>s the republican politician who was appointed to fill his father<u+2019>s rhode island u.s. senate seat in 1999, won re-election in 2000, lost in 2006, became an independent, was elected governor in 2010, became a democrat, didn<u+2019>t seek re-election, then briefly ran for his new party<u+2019>s presidential nomination this year. luke o<u+2019>neil of esquire does. he tracked chafee down for an interview: in a democracy, the people get the liters they deserve. follow @jamestaranto on twitter. join fans of best of the web today on facebook. subscribe to the best of the web email with one click. (carol muller helps compile best of the web. thanks to david holland, mike lavender, ed lasky, wes van fleet, chris papouras, michele schiesser, james benenson, miguel rakiewicz, mordecai bobrowsky, mark zoeller, debbie wells, tony lima, irene deblasio, eric jensen, william mcmillan, michael smith, macrena sailor, jeryl bier and tracey tomashpol. if you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com , and please include the url.)
kaine<u+2019>s enabler - wsj
james taranto