Who Wants to Be President?

The Nielson Company estimated that thirty-seven million people watched the two-hour premiere of American Idol on January 16th.

Thirty-seven million. Million. Thirty-seven. Thirty...

I'm sorry, but the number still makes my head spin.

And thirty-five million tuned in for the season premiere of 24.

What boggles me more is that either of these figures are easily thirty percent of the number of people who voted in the last presidential election. Granted, many of the viewers are below voting age (Nielson did not release any estimates parsed into demographics). But if simply a few good marketing gimmicks and a bunch of commercials showing stuff getting blown up or AI hopefuls singing so badly they could make paint curl are enough to ensure that all those eyeballs do nothing more than sit on their couches and press a particular button on their remotes (I don't know if this included the number of people who either TiVo'ed or videotaped or downloaded the shows), then think of how many more could be gotten if only a modicum of extra effort were required.

I'm not talking about a lot of extra effort. This has the effect of diminishing returns. Because obviously from the current turnout rates at the polls, it's too hard to parse out all those confusing political commercials or stay awake during the debates. Then you have to make a decision. If you even decide to vote at all, you have to get in the car and drive somewhere, or figure out which bus or subway to take. You have to fight your way through either Democratic or Republican dirty tricks (depending on your orientation) and then you have to (sometimes) wait in line, help the volunteer find your name on the rolls, then pull that really heavy lever to close and re-open your booth curtain (or, if you live in Florida, figuring out how to vote at all).

Perhaps I'm not the first to propose this idea, but if I am, let me add my voice to the chorus: let's simply dispense with the whole electoral mess and select our presidents like they do the next pop star on American Idol?