Back when the first Survivor series was gathering record ratings, this idea came to me.
The major media companies (AOL Time-Warner, Disney(ABC), GE(that's NBC to you and me), Viacom(CBS, I think), print media(hmm, no names come to mind)) could get together and sponsor a "reality tv" type of contest to produce a Presidential candidate. They would start with people who expressed interest (a la Survivor etc.) and give them debates and tests of all kinds (the results would be made public) and let the Viewers (that is, the TV watching public, larger and and more diverse than the normal election-voting public) vote possible candidates out of the running. When its down to one person left, the sponsoring media companies all support [her, him, it] in the actual Presidential elections. (They can afford the vast sums of money required since airtime would be free)
What do y'all think?