"American Idol- President Edition"?

No no, I'm not talking about a singing competition for American presidents- I'm here to propose a new idea to decide the next president of the United States of America (if not every other elected official in the world).

See, with the knowledge that American Idol considerably outdraws the presidential race in terms of viewership and votes, it would naturally follow that maybe the two ideas should be combined as one. Instead of having to wait eight long months waiting for the Democrats and the Republicans to decide on which faceless robot will represent them and then wait three more long months to choose the drone whose rehearsed jabs were the least boring, why not open the entire race to every eligible contestant in America, have "judges" (maybe one from each political stream, or at least the major ones) whittle them down to 40 or so where eventually we'll vote them off until we figure out an overall winner- the President. Along the way we can expect the usual segments we love so much on Idol, such as the funny auditions (if you think awful singing is bad, think of the ideas some of the hopefuls will come up with...) as well as challenges to test the candidates on their speaking ability, their passion and their charisma, as well as how well versed they are in current events and issues. You could even throw in a segment for a "secret talent", like what is done on the Miss America pageant, because several Presidents had talents in something other than...wait, they had talents (Bill Clinton, for one, is a saxophone player).

Now, I understand the competition is fraught with problems because navigating through the milieu of ideas within the political spectrum is a lot harder than simply deciding who's got the best voice (we're talking about picking someone to run a country, where there can hardly be a consensus and which is more important a job than releasing an album that no one will buy anyway), but it's plain to me that democracy in the 21st century has lost a lot of its bite. Part of it has to do with the fact our society is just so comfortable to live in that there's hardly a pressing need to debate about how the country should go forward ("it ain't broke so don't fix it") but part of it also has to do with the fact the process just doesn't have any pizazz. The success of American Idol hinges on the fact that it's entertaining and while I don't think political decisions should be made on entertainment value alone, if the political process could appear to be "fun" (just like Idol) then maybe more would turn out to the polls because then it'd be worth watching- and following. Besides, if nothing else, it should serve as a reminder that as long as we have a lifeless process we'll have a lifeless leader- and I think that is an issue more pressing than any concern this "glamourization" may cause.

-DG