First, there is the issue of campaign finance. Essentially, the uncomfortable question is this: is the American system set up to reward victory to the candidates with the best ideas, or to the candidates with the most connections and most luxuriously funded political campaigns? If the answer to this is anything other than "victory goes to those with the best ideas" then there is a serious problem.

The role that campaign advertising pla

Since even common people have good ideas, it seems strange that almost all of the candidates who get taken the most seriously emerge from one or the other of the two parties. Someone other than party big wigs should occasionally win a presidential election, a hitherto anonymous Mr. Deeds for instance, but Mr. Deeds would find some difficulties even getting his name on a presidential election ballot.

Another issue is the question of plurality. Perhaps because they wanted to avoid a complicated and lengthy electoral process, the Founding Fathers determined that whoever won a plurality of votes would be president. Thus, if there are three candidates running for president and after the election the votes are split 33%, 33% and 34%, the candidate with the 34% return would technically win. Bill Clinton's victory over the elder Bush was with a mere 43% of the popular vote (Kinsley, 2002). This means 57% of the American people found the official "winner" unacceptable. Should any candidate of whom it can be said that 57% of voters consider him (or her) unfit for an office occupy that office? Does an American election choose the best candidate, or merely the lesser among several evils?

The money squandered on advertising and public relations in election years is incredible, and the sources of the money itself have come under fire. The issue is whether a conflict of interest occurs when a company makes a large financial contribution to the campaign of a particular political candidate when the outcome of the race will have a serious impact on the company's future. The root of the problem is this: if it is true that expensive advertising and public relations campaigns (images rather than ideas) have an undue influence on the outcome of elections, then large campaign contributions from companies with vested interests in elections' outcomes necessarily have an undue influence on the outcome of those elections. Should corporations be free to influence the political process in this way, or does their freedom subvert the average citizen's monopoly on influencing the process with his or her vote?

This segues into the issue of how important is the popular vote in electing the president and vice president? The answer that would seem to be the most "democratic" has to be "it is supremely important." However, the actual answer is, it can be important, but not as important as the votes cast by the Electoral College.

That being the case, the aforementioned Mr. Deeds' being the most popular person in the country on election day won't help him at the voting booths, because h

Some common words found in the essay are:
Electoral College, Joe Candidate, Democrats Republicans, Bill Clinton's, Bush Gore, Election Commission, , United Deeds, Vice President, Founding Fathers, popular vote, electoral college, presidential election, influence outcome, outcome elections, influence outcome elections, democrats republicans, vice president, political process, president vice, president vice president, undue influence outcome, vote presidential election, vote presidential, advertising public relations,
Approximate Word count = 1745
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)