T. Boone Pickens - A Better Way to Elect Our President

I learned today that T. Boone Pickens has a new idea for improving the presidential selection process. He calls it:  "Let's Find a Better Way to Elect Our President".
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-idea-2016-lets-find-better-way-elect-our-t-boone-pickens

Pickens main point is that the selection process is broken and that the solution is "...a bipartisan screening committee that vets presidential candidates like we do anyone else applying for a job and recommends the best candidates possible. We have people running for president now who don’t even have experience running a lemonade stand. Qualifications that the committee would factor in include: leadership experience; team-building skills; and a rock-solid plan for their administration."

I’m not surprised that a mainstream Republican like Pickens, who supported G.W. Bush and, in 2007, Giuliani, would be appalled by the potential of a Trump candidacy, or even, given his requirements of leadership experience and team building skills, a Rubio or a Cruz (the Carson situation is so ridiculous, I can’t even include him in the discussion).

Aside from the knee jerk, right-wing rant at the end about runaway deficits and a broken Washington, Pickens’ idea is interesting, but not really that novel. Strip away the bipartisan aspect of his screening committee (the bipartisan part will never happen) and substitute "screening committee” for "smoke-filled room” and, in essence, he’s talking about something akin to the party conventions before the primary system took hold. While “screening committee” sounds a whole lot better than “smoke-filled room” they’re substantially the same - some small group, picked by who knows what, selects the candidates. Is that a better way? Perhaps. Some good presidents came out of that system, as did some really bad ones. Our current system transfers the decision to the people, a fundamentally more democratic process. Is that a better way? In this America, perhaps (obviously?) not. 

• The decision process has been corrupted by money, so much money as to make the democratic aspect of it, well, undemocratic.
• That money buys communication - TV ads; web pages; direct communication; etc - that is unregulated for content. In essence a candidate can say almost anything in a piece of communication with no vetting for veracity. Compare that with product advertising. Commercial companies are bound by restrictions that prevent them from making false claims about their products or those of their competitors. Candidates are not held to the same commercial standard; their statements and advertisements are considered "political speech," which falls under the protection of the First Amendment. And it gets better: broadcasters are REQUIRED to run those ads even if they know the claims are false.
• Beyond the money, beyond the manipulative, untruthful communication, there’s another problem. I fear that we’re living in a country where information processing and decision making based on that information is gone. Rhetoric and “red meat” seem to be what’s needed to carry the day. There is no other reason for Trump. 

So, back to T. Boone Pickens. I give him credit for his idea. Based on what I’ve seen of the American process and the American electorate, taking the nominating process out of the hands of the people, as heinous as that sounds, might be appropriate at this point, whether via select committees, smoked filled rooms or something else. He’s right - there’s got to be a better way.

But, once we get past the nomination process, we have an even bigger problem: the election. And in that election, all the problems listed above return: excessive money; unvetted communication; and the inability of the people to think critically. Oh, and by the way, there’s that Electoral College thing…but that’s another issue.