There is hope that the 2000 vote will be less staged-managed than expected: a third party run. I'd be happy because as a journalist, it'd be fun to cover.

But consider this: consultants are used to managing candidates in the United State's two-party political system. Ross Perot was unexecpted in 1992 and helped Clinton to win. In 1996, Perot was a victim of his own hype.

His Reform Party, which has more than 10 million dollars in federal matching funds in its coffer, will probably field a candidate in 2000 the hope of becoming stronger in 2004.

If they do, they will likely nominate a moderate--the former Connecticut governor Lowell P. Weicker Jr.--for instance. Gore and Bush (or whomever the Democratic and Republican nominees) will be will have to think outside the box. The candidates will have to work hard--and really distinguish themselves--in order to get elected.

Most political cynics say that money corrupts--or that journalists annoint frontrunners. In a small way, maybe. But the system will survive because voters aren't stupid and are always more idealistic than the candidates. We'll survive direct marketing and ethnic appeals.

I don't know who to vote for, and I certainly won't vote for someone who calls me (on the advice of a consultant) with a real-sounding "personal message" from his Market Ability Real Call Message System.

Marc J. Ambinder '01, a Crimson editor, is a history concentrator in Lowell House. He is working for the political unit at ABC News in New York City this summer.