[gordonguthrie]

Elections in the US are very poorly regulated - political appointees are Election Officers, gerrymandering of political districts is wholesales and your election turnouts are very low by international standards. The best funded candidate wins because your political parties are very weak. One of the core reasons behind this is that in 1948 you nationalised your political parties. In no other country in the world is the internal 'elections' of a political party - the way you select your candidates/primaries - run by the state. In only 8 of the states (I think!) are candidates selected by members of the parties only. Membership has no meaning - which means parties have no meaning - no collective existence. This lets private money rule the day in all your parties. When I was selected as an SNP parliamentary candidate in Scotland I was forbidden to spend ANY MONEY on my selection campaign. Only paid members of the party can select a candidate - and the only way to get selected is to be known the members personally and to do the work.

[abalone]

I'm all for regulating money out of politics. But point of clarification (since we're being all parliamentary).. I was comparing the U.S. to countries with even weaker election controls.