Carol C was partly right and partly wrong when she said:

Originally, there were no parties and people just voted for the individual they thought would make the best president.

Right: Originally, there were no parties

But wrong: and people just voted for the individual they thought would make the best president.

People did not then, and do not now (though they think they do) vote for any individual for president.

The philosophy originally was that solid, knowledgeable, honest, respected citizens (read "big propertyowners") should be made members of an Electoral College, which would deliberate and decide on the best man.   The Constitution doesn't say how the Electors are to be elected/appointed, but in the earliest days it was usual for the respective state legislatures to elect/appoint the Electors, just as they elected/appointed Senators at first. Over a period of time more and more states set up caucus systems and primaries to do that.

But in the early days the ordinary citizen did not in any way vote for say John Quincy Adams or Jefferson.   And this November none of the citizenry will actually vote for McCain or Clinton or Obama; they will vote for a set of Electors pledged to one or another of those worthies.

What's more, the Electoral College will never meet as a single body. They send their votes in on paper. I forget who tabulates those votes.

The no-parties, best-man for the job philosophy sounds salutary, high-minded, and all that, but it's never had much (if any) of a try, and I don't think it ever will.

The fact is that no public official of any significance is an individual. An individual aspirant to office cannot either run a campaign alone or execute the office alone if elected. A significant public officeholder is a team, with friends, debts, pledges, alliances. A President without significant support in Congress will be a failure in office, no matter how moral, intelligent, honest, energetic, etc. (s)he may be. What we call parties are mechanisms for building the networks of connections that make government possible.

To say, "I don't pay attention to the parties; I vote for the best man," is to reveal an appalling misunderstanding of what it takes to hold and exercise public office.

I say again: No significant public official is an individual!

Dave Oesterreich