The electoral college is what Dan Barreiro might call a “sticky wicket.” I understand the importance of having a president with broad geographical and cultural appeal - they are supposed to represent the entire country not just the densely populated coastal enclaves - but it is hard to ignore the problems that arise when the person who received the most votes nationwide isn’t the president.
The 2000 election, regardless of which way the Supreme Court made its decision amplified the partisan warfare and entrenched everyone on both sides more deeply in their bunkers. I'm not re-litigating the 2000 election - it's more than irrelevant at this point. But I do think that when the electoral college and the popular vote are split that it causes a greater partisan rift than their might otherwise be. The losers are bitter because they got the most votes but not the presidency and the winner is defensive about their legitimacy - and I think it would be that way regardless of which party won or lost. I believe some, or much of conflict this could be prevented in the future by amending the constitution so that if the popular vote and the electoral college are split, the winner of the popular votes gets the vice presidency and the winner of the electoral college gets the presidency.
This idea is not as silly as it might seem in our current political world of party before country, but in the days of the founding, the members of the electoral college each cast votes for two presidential candidates - the person who got the most votes, as long as it was a majority, won the presidency and the person with the second most presidential votes became vice president. Eventually, the electoral college delegation of each state were pledged to vote for the designated vice presidential candidate of the party that won their state, so while the constitution still says that the president and vice president are elected separately, in practice they are not.
Now, on to the practical applications:
There is no constitutional limit to the number of vice presidential terms a person can serve so it would do no harm to their future presidential or vice presidential prospects.
If the vice president is elected via popular vote then the president who won the electoral college cannot just remove the vice president on day 2. The popularly elected vice president could only be removed from office if the president requests that the Senate vote for removal.
The vice president would at least keep his current duty as president of the senate where he may vote only to break ties. Although, in an effort to make the job more robust his role as president of the Senate could be constitutionally expanded.
Obviously, a split between the electoral college and the popular vote doesn't come up very often, but the image of both presidential candidates holding each other's hand in the air on inauguration day, and finding a way to work together during the term could go a long way towards bringing a closely divided country together.
(cross-posted at Long Straight Highway)