Back in May 2007 I first floated the idea of using the American Idol/Dancing with the Stars selection method as a model for a way to select presidential candidates. Because of the power of the internet to disseminate ideas and the broad reach of the swcamborne blog nothing happened. Now that the Iowa Caucuses are over (Obama and Huckabee won) it is time to revisit the idea.

In a country this big and diverse it is wrong to continue to select candidates based on how much a few people from Iowa or New Hampshire like them. It made sense when technology constrained travel and communications but not now. And Hollywood again has shown the way. During the Democrat Idol selection process you would get to vote each week. The candidates would compete to avoid elimination by showing how well they handled:

• Issues by teaching a civics course at a High School perhaps
• Compassion by working in a soup kitchen
• International affairs by traveling somewhere and speaking to a foreign leader.
• Debating with other candidates
• Communicating by holding an impromptu news conference
• Strategy by playing board games against each other
• Team building by having to select and defend a shadow cabinet
• Defense by spending a day at a military base

A candidate selected by this process would have much more name recognition and fund raising ability than the winner of the Iowa Caucus. It is the future of politics.