Only 44 percent of the recipients of Radnor newsletters have what appear to be U.S. email addresses. The rest come from all over, with about a third from the European Union and an additional 8% from Russia (or parts of the former Soviet Union that are now independent). So it is no surprise that I receive questions from outside the United States about what is happening in presidential politics.

A product of several compromises, the system is confusing at best and crazy at worst. So it is also no surprise that I receive questions from the U.S. about what is happening. If Americans are befuddled by it, how can people outside the United States have any chance to understand? At the risk of being terribly, horribly, awfully wrong ? instead of just wrong ? I will try to answer your most frequent question. Before I do, let me note that this is the most publicized nominating process in U.S. history. Both parties have had their recent coalitions splinter a bit and are trying to put together new coalitions to reach an election-day majority. For observers, the process is made more difficult because the rules are different state-by-state and within each party. That confuses things. Believe it or not, the confusion is at least partly intended. That's right: Some of this mess is intentional.

Now, to that most frequent question: What the #+*#%+# exactly is going on?

Fear of King George

The best answer is that no one knows. But the current process has deep roots in the American colonists' fear of King George. The colonists feared the king's arbitrary power so much than Americans may never be rid of his influence in their political life. Americans prefer indirection in choosing their president. They do not like decisiveness and always seem to seek to delay ultimate decisions by creating a mechanism for one more review, one last step. Change is very difficult. Of course, selecting a new president is a huge change.

Other democracies have an election day and, barring a close vote that requires negotiation to put together a governing coalition, a new government is formed. Americans have a popular election in November of every fourth year ? and then have the Electoral College meet in December to ratify the decision of the voters. If the Electoral College cannot agree, the election will be decided by the House of Representatives (under arcane and partisan procedures in which each state gets one vote) unless the courts step in with a definitive ruling. Along the way, between November and January, Florida 2000 can happen.

When colonial leaders became state leaders, they searched for a way to draw the disparate states together under a central government. They failed in their first attempt because they created a toothless central government. We Americans live under their second attempt, in which they made sure no president or group could assume broad control by including in the Constitution many checks and balances on the power of each branch of government. For example, the small states got two senators, just like the big states. The big states got more representatives in Congress, where districts were based on population.

But the small states were still afraid of the power of the big states. So the rules and procedures of the Senate were designed to give any single senator the power to block a vote on any legislation, no matter how popular that legislation might be with the other senators and with the members of the House of Representatives. Many procedures are designed to slow things down and to require more review and deliberation.