No, you convince people to vote for you.
Then the American populace is just as imcompetent as he is which it isn't true at all. You wish it is that simple. The reality is that by having influencial people around you, you get access to big war chest which translate into bigger media coverage and better campaign strategists, and by having political capitals you get access to those people who would bring the credibility to you even if you are as smart as a chair, the voters won't know the difference until its too late(in GWB's case it was never late). I admire your belief that today US government's policy is depended on general public's opinion rather than influenced by the lobbists represent various special interests groups and corporates.
And yet in the short history it has, the US have accomplished so much despite electing incompetents like B43, who is probably is far more competent as governor and President than the previous generation of China's leaders that produced the economic and social disaster that was Cold War China.
But basically, you support political elitism in China. The new royalty. They exclude commoners like you simply because you have no political experience. You do not even deserve to make any opinions of them, and if you do make any opinions of them, you are ignored anyway since you do not matter, not even in the least.
Mind you that the history of PRC is even much short than USA. Although in the early days it had made some mistakes, in the past 30 something years the government has done a remarkable job for its people. Just 20 years ago owning a car is only a dream for most Chinese even if they live in the coast area of China, and now cities like Shanghai and Beijing has to restrict number of new cars being registered to ease the traffic even though new roads are being built at lightning speed. However those restriction hasn't stopped people's enthusiasm of owning a car, for example in Shanghai since each month the license plate for new vehicle is limited, and each of them has to be put for auction. Now the price just for a license plate is already close to RMB 100,000(that is enough for buy a cheap new car in US). If you think any politician in US is capable of doing a better job in China, then be my guest. Although I hate to make this kind of comparison, but while you criticising of PRC government of not being capable of producing results, why don't you bring some examples from a country that has similiar population and started as poor as China.
As for your accusing me of supporting "political elitism", and I gladly admit me being guilty of that. However this political elitist group is not exclusive as you made it out to be. Vast majority of the politicians that hold top positions in China come from humble background, as I said before in my previous post they got there by climbing the power ladder step by step like everyone else. Everyone who wish to make his opinion matters can take a public servant entrance exam which is open to everyone let he/she be the son of the president or from poor farmer's family, and its is required for anyone who wish to work in the politics, then you can work your way up there by showing good result. If someone wants his or her opinion to matter to others, it should be earned rather than given as a birth right. You can't argue that people graduated from elite school's opinion doesn't matter more than someone has an associate degree from community college. Those schools aren't exclusive, people get accepted to those school by being competent.
Why should I not agreed with those reporters? Even if we all turn out wrong in the future, that in itself is nothing extraordinary. But given the fact that you support political elitism in China, what make you think little miss Mingze will not someday sneer down her nose at you from the palaces of Beijing?
Why shouldn't you agree? The same reason you don't agree with other reporters when they have shown that they have no real experience in the field they were talking about.
So my question for you is that the bet is on or not?