Any old folks remember this short story?

[guyton]

I know I'm grasping at straws, but does anyone know this story? I've been trying to find it for decades now.

It's a short (in a collection of shorts) about a political system that prohibited people from running for president.

The basic idea was that anyone who wanted to be president was mentally ill. They had a draft and it worked pretty well.

Anyone remember it? Know the author/title? I'll let you guess why I keep trying to find it :-)

[phantom power]

1. Can't say I remember, but it reminds me of another old one...

If you were elected supreme leader (or whatever it was), your body was essentially wired into the state of the union -- so if some aspect of the union wasn't going well, it caused some part of your body to physically hurt.

:evilgrin:



Douglas Adams touched more than once on the whole anybody-who-wants-to-be-leader-is-by-definition-unqualified theme. Maybe he first saw it in that story you are trying to find :-)

[guyton]

2. now that's an idea I could get behind!

of course there'd be considerable debate about just how much pain to inflict due to what aspect ... e.g. whether or not to even count jobs moving overseas ....

And it could have been Douglas Adams ... though I think I read this story in the late 70's ... and he was just barely getting started then. But could have been!

[Orrex]

3. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe has a similar concept

[lazarus]

4. IIRC

it was a short short from a collection edited by Asimov. I have it in storage, but have no idea how I'd find it. I have way too many books. :D

[guyton]

5. that's quite likely!

I had a lot of collections by the masters ... though I'm pretty sure he didn't write this one or I would have tripped over it again!

And it was a short-short. So I think you're remembering correctly!

Thanks for the hint :-)

[lazarus]

6. found the collection

I remember this cover exactly, so I know it's the one:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Science-Fiction-Short-Stories/dp/0380507730/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1301800957&sr=8-16

[guyton]

7. Wowowowow!!

Well, I think I'll pass on the $352 "new" version, but boy am I ordering this today!

Thanks & I'll let you know if it really does have the story I'm remembering.

Thank you thank you!!

[Dr. Strange]

9. Hey, I have that book!

I love short short stories.

[SheilaT]

8. This is not it,

but the Isaac Asimov story "Franchise" is eerily prescient of polling. In it, men run for president in the normal way, but the election is not held the way we know it. Rather on election day one, yes ONE citizen is selected who is then interviewed by the powerful computer of the time, and although that person is not directly asked who he (or she) wants to be elected, based on the answers given the computer decides the outcome of not only the presidential race, but all of the others that would normally have been held.

People of that era find it quite weird that in their grandparents' time everyone could vote.

The year of the story? 2008.

I have for about the past thirty years thought it should be required reading every four years.

[lazarus]

10. I remember that story

good story.

[Richard D]

11. I must have read it when I was a kid . . .

. . . and forgot I read it. I've always thought the idea was mine. Oh well.

[Fumesucker]

12. There was a story in Analog some years back..

In which when you filled out your tax return you could specify which programs you wanted your money spent on and it had to be used by the government for the purpose(s) you picked.

And yeah, I recall at least one story with the theme stated in the OP but I have not a clue where I read it or even when.

[eppur_se_muova]

13. Sure it was a short story? Sounds PhilDickian. nt