The U.S. is the sole remaining superpower, and the U.S. president is supposed to be the most powerful person in the world. If you didn't know better, you'd think such a job would attract a swarm of highly qualified, very able candidates. It doesn't.
How is it that our political system is so screwed up that the best our two major parties can give us is an abandoned by his parents freshman Senator with no accomplishments beyond oratory and a decent jump shot, and a ready-for-retirement curmudgeonly senior Senator whose decision-making is highly suspect and who is almost as unpopular among Republicans as Democrats.
Oddly, either of these paragons could be the proverbial Manchurian Candidate. Obama because he was raised a Muslim in Indonesia, and has hung out with Communists, domestic terrorists, and black nationalists ever since. McCain because he was a prisoner of the North Vietnamese Communists for several years and may have been brainwashed like the fictional Manchurian Candidate. These are not, by the way, serious allegations, they are instead merely ironic coincidences.
Back to my original question: what do we need to do to spur attractive, talented, experienced people to run for president? Shorten the race? Compel public funding?
