President, Nominating and Electing

The election of a U.S. president is always costly, often rancorous, sometimes messy, seldom boring. The system is perhaps more complicated than it needs to be, but it has worked with few major repairs for more than two hundred years, generally satisfying the citizenry and meeting the nation's changing needs.

The election occurs every four years and permits the peaceful transfer of power or continuation of the status quo for four more years, no matter how bitter or divisive the campaign that preceded it. Indeed, the American electoral system differs from those of other nations and, for all its flaws, is the envy of many other countries. (See International and U.S. elections compared.)

As the nation and the electorate have grown and technology has evolved, presidential elections have become more expensive, costing an estimated $700 million in 1996. Because of the high costs, money and its abuses account for the biggest continuing stain on the system, despite the myriad campaign finance reforms enacted since the 1970s to avoid corruption and reduce the influence of special interests.

On the more positive side, presidential nominations have become more open and representative of the voters at large. Party bosses no longer dictate the choice of nominees. Instead, the nominations are won through a hard-fought series of primary elections and party caucuses, where rank-and-file party members have an opportunity to express their preference. Once forums for determining who would head the presidential ticket, national party conventions today perform different functions, but among them is the ratification of the nominations won in the primaries.

As televised spectaculars, the conventions remain important to the parties' public relations efforts during the intense weeks before the November election. Although ratings have dropped in recent years, the millions who watch the conventions on television are too big an audience for the parties to ignore, and they do not. With expert advice they have streamlined the proceedings to showcase their nominees in prime time as the countdown begins to election day.

In these final campaign stages, today's nominees usually keep intact the organizations they built to help them survive the primaries. These increasingly professional organizations are made up of the candidate, his or her family, a running mate, polling and political consultants, fund raisers, media coverage and media use consultants, issue advisers, schedulers, advance persons, and others. campaign strategies must be carefully managed if the candidate is to move successfully through the primary season, the nominating conventions, and the general election campaign.

Who Runs for President