The Dance of Obfuscation.

The political season is starting. Electoral politics is like a distant freight train moving toward us; the din will grow louder and louder until it blocks out rational thought.
There always is a background radiation of electoral politics as opposed to, say, legislative politics which is the sound of compromise being struck, of investigations real and Potemkin, of continual speeches using the word "outrageous" inappropriately and often.
The sound of electoral politics rises in volume every cycle to block out the legislative process entirely. The last 2 cycles (2000 and 2004) were interesting in that real conflict was possible, given the electoral anomalies.
This time, I see blandness wherever I look. I am sure that the candidate will be long-established (other than Obama), wealthy personally and a lawyer. I am also sure, as I have been for 20 years, that I and anyone I know will have absolutely no input into the process of selecting a candidate.
My solution? Have the parties select 10 candidates, and run them off in a series of monthly national elections, eliminating 2 at a time from the process, culminating in the Big One in November. Make this a giant reality show, where someone gets voted off the show every month. I'd be a lot more interested in it, and I think you would be as well.
So decreed.