In the Crimson, an IOP séquestrée describes an uncomfortable awakening to reality:

If not mastery of policy, just what criteria do Americans use to pick their president?

[...]

As a highly-educated, soon-to-be-yuppie emerging from the throes of e-recruiting, I ex ante believe that jobs should be rewarded to those who can establish their qualifications in a substantive, structured and tangible way—namely, through policy debates

[...]

Far from elegant (or even reasonable), the process by which we make our most important political choices is a sticky web of policy, identity, and a strong thirst for likeable leadership; our inability to gauge, much less standardize, these criteria with which we size up our options is at the same time the most beautiful and frustrating element of our electoral process.

Look upon my electoral politics, ye neutered mandarins, and despair!