It is indeed important to elect public officials. Without the electoral process--which, yes, includes the election of Presidents--there is precisely no democracy, not a bit less or more. Without democracy there is nothing. The Presidency, perhaps more than any other elected position, is weighty and of consequence. Without the Presidency there is no American system of government.

For democracy to be viable, elections must take place with regularity, and their results must be credible. There must be no questionable motive or practice (stuffing, padding, scrawling, enhancing, re-delivering, repetition of constants, etc.). There must be a believable situation, something the people can consider with confidence to be subject to their influence. There must be reflection and, even more, aggrandizement.

Those who pursue the Presidency, or, indeed, the practice of government in any variety, must understand these issues and move forcefully towards the future, with these important issues firmly in tow. Behind these pursuers, pulled along by the convection of their wake, these issues. Ahead of them, the beautiful expanse of America's future, pushed slightly to the side by the force of their keel's impact, as well as the impact of other such keels.

And then also, in the troughs formed by these keels, yet other issues roll around and gather force like the locomotives that gathered steam on the railways of America's past and moved along them (railways) past the fields of what was then the present into the wastelands of what was then the future and is now the present.

These are the things we can promise, and we do so understanding the full weight of the Presidency, the electoral system, democracy, and the American style of government.