Presidential campaigns were going on forever. No sooner would one president be sworn in than people would already start talking about the next president. It was theorized that the problem was that the campaigns lasted so long that people got bored of all the candidates, including the candidate who eventually won.
So it was decided that the Presidential campaign would last one day. No one was allowed to do any campaigning - no speeches, no debates, no visits to factories or bakeries or diners or ice cream parlors - until Election Day itself.
Several weeks prior to Election Day, anyone who wanted to be a Presidential candidate could sign up by paying a $2 fee to put their name in the hat. Then, the day before Election Day, the Chief Justice of the United States would mix up all the names in the hat, and pick two. These were the two candidates - one Democrat, and one Republican. It did not matter what these candidate's real positions were, or what party they had been affiliated with during their career leading up to the Presidential race. One had to be the Democrat, and the other had to be the Republican.
These two names were picked at midnight on Election Day, and the first debate was at 5:00 a.m. The two lucky candidates had to quickly familiarize themselves with the platform that they were supposed to adopt. The main task was to make sure that they didn't agree on any issues. So as they studied their positions from midnight to 5:00 a.m., they often called each other up. "Hey, so are you against starting that war in whatever that place is? Oh, you're for it? Okay, then I'll be against it. Glad I checked."
After the 5:00 a.m. debate it would be time to raise money and run commercials slinging mud at the other candidate. Given the little amount of time available to raise funds, checks could not be accepted because of the time required to clear. Only credit cards, debit cards, and transfers between PayPal accounts would work as valid campaign contributions.
Then at 9:00 a.m., with all the money raised, the two campaigns would set out making TV and radio ads that would cast the other candidate as a totally incompetent and unethical hypocrite who cared more about himself or herself than the American people. Because there was so little time to produce these ads, there was only time to take an existing ad and splice in the names of the candidates. The ads were really identical except the two names would be in one order in one video, and the in the reverse order in other video.
Then at noon the two candidates would go on their book tours. They would appear on talk shows with their new books where they discussed how their simple backgrounds and professional adversity had molded them into the perfect President. Since there was only one day to appear on the shows, the candidates would have be guests at the same time, sitting at opposite sides of the host's desk, each holding up their book and sipping from their mugs of coffee. The host's main job was to prevent the two candidates from talking at the same time, so the host would turn to one and say, "Now you talk," while holding up a hand to the other, and then would turn to the other and say, "Okay, now you go."
At 2:00 p.m. there would be another debate, usually featuring at least one scandal that had been leaked at some point during the day, and the targeted candidate would have an opportunity to look grim and admit that "mistakes were made." At 3:00 p.m. the candidates would eat a late lunch at a local restaurant, serving locally grown food on plates manufactured in China. And by 4:00 p.m. the candidates would be shown at home with their spouses and children so that the American voters could see how ordinary and down to Earth they were.
Finally, at 5:00 p.m. the polls would open. Americans could vote until 10:00 p.m., at which time the vote tallies would be open to legal challenge. At 11:00 p.m. any legal challenges had to be ended, and at midnight the new President would be announced.
Everyone would watch the announcement with great excitement. It would have been a very exciting 24-hours. And just after the announced winner gave the speech thanking supporters and offering best wishes to the loser, the TV stations would automatically switch to a regularly scheduled program, and no one would speak of campaigns for the next four years.
