Last week's news.

Don't think the money system is buying you top quality national leadership? Still don't see a presidential candidate worth voting for? Look backward, angel, to the election of 1940, when the Republican and Democratic candidates jumped in the race during the summer of that year.

The average voter had no influence, and didn't expect any, in 1940. When Republicans nominated Wendell Willkie a few days after France surrendered to Germany, Grand Old Party leaders saw a need for an activist manager rather than one of the isolationists they would have chosen in quieter times. Franklin Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented third term by a charade in which the Chicago sewer commissioner, at an offstage microphone, set off a demonstration by bellowing for him over the public address system. The "draft" that blew the nomination to FDR was known forever after as "the voice from the sewer."

Both of those nominations were rigged by bosses with Election Day in sight. Had nominations been frozen months earlier, neither candidate might have been on the ticket. It's hard to say when FDR decided anything, but in January, he gave every sign of being ready to go home. Republican bosses didn't like Mr. Willkie, but by June, they needed him.

Eventually, reforms came. Out went party machines and in came presidential primaries that force candidates to raise buckets of money, which makes them start early. A slight improvement would be to move the primaries to later into the election year, but tourism interests and the show-biz arm of the news media dictate the reverse. If trends continue, by mid-century, the Iowa caucuses for the next election will be held on the first Tuesday after the inauguration of the winner of the last one.

The reforms didn't replace political hacks with voters. It replaced nominations by voices from the sewer with nominations by checks from the penthouse. That's how we get the choices we get.