Let's just go to the American Idol model and vote out one candidate a week!

Next election cycle, lets bring them all on TV once a week, Republicans and Democrats both, and have them all answer one question each and then subject themselves to professional commentary from the celebrity judges (Oprah Winfrey, Tim Russert and Chris Mathews).
Then AMERICA VOTES and the following week Ryan Seacrest can bring them back and winnow out the field.

The loser will still get an opportunity to face America one last time and answer the question he/she wishes they had been asked.

Efficient, effective, no?

it would get more Americans involved, and if EVERYONE was allowed to vote, and not just those in one state, it would be worth it.

:evilgrin: That'd be funny.

and anyways i do advocate for run off ballots which is basically what american idol is. In this way we insure we get the candidate that majority of people want and we wont be so concerned with "wasting" our votes.

way more realistic that way.

JRE's a marathon runner :D

it would be like Big Brother. Put all the second tier candidates in a house to live together through 2007, both Dems and Repubs - Biden, Richardson, Gravel, Kucinich, Hunter, Tancredo, Paul, etc. etc. As on Big Brother, have them eject one of their own each week. As incentive, the network could collect together donations ("bundle") say, 5 or 10 million which would be given to the winner at the end. It would also help the debates, because in the run-up year (2007) only the first tier candidates would be available, and the debates would be more manageable and substantive. At the same time, the second tier candidates would get a lot more exposure to the public on "Second Tier House" than they would otherwise. Finally, in addition to the bundled money, it could be arranged that the last two survivors in the house (Dem and Repub) would be guaranteed a spot in all future debates after the show would have ended (a few days before Iowa.)

There would have been a lot of good drama too. Can you imagine Tancredo and Gravel interacting? What if they had to share a bedroom? The possibilities are endless. Too late now, but it's something that could be done for the 2012 contest.

It was like the NYT said: howlingly funny!

The duet between "Tina Turner" and "Hillary" singing "What's Bill
Got To Do With It?" was fabulous, and Laura Bush pining for "Obama"
was great, too. The guy who did Gore and Reagan was scary, his Reagan
voice was that authentic. But Enga Davis WAS Tina Turner.

They are supposed to start up another run on the spring, probably with
new stuff to accommodate the new political situation then. I will fly
over again if I can to see that one, too.