Sorry excuse for an election system

I was sorry to see Edwards bow out of the race, but sorrier still to see once again how our lousy election system plays out. Nine months before the election, and we're already down to basically three candidates -- two on the Democratic side, one on the Republican. And of course, no independents. And it's all because of the corrosive effects of big money.

Make no mistake, it is because of the huge piles of cash involved that states try so hard to jostle near the front of the line with their primary dates. Everyone knows the biggest pile of money gets thrown at the early states, for the reason we're seeing play out now -- candidates (and their backers) feel they cannot compete if they don't get some early victories.

For one thing, it shouldn't be a winner-takes-all approach for the delegates -- just like it shouldn't be for the electoral college in the general election. For another, and I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but we have GOT to get the big money out of our election system altogether. What we end up with every single time is candidates who serve their constituency alright, and very faithfully. Unfortunately, that constituency is not the voters, but the ones who helped them buy those votes with big ad campaigns -- their big money donors.

This is the underlying cause of ALL our problems, I feel. We cannot begin to address the real, underlying solutions to our myriad crises in this country without first addressing this one. Only when candidates feel a real need to do what the public wants will they begin to solve our problems. Health care, environment, military, corporate greed, the economy -- the reason these are SO screwed up is that our so-called 'leaders' have been led by the nose themselves, right to the feeding troughs of the very rich.