How does the US elect a President?

Even with all my smart, educated friends, I am having difficulty finding anyone who knows how our Presidential election system works! So, I’ll be updating this entry with information to try to sort this out.

Topics to be investigated:

• How primaries work. The main parties (Republicans and Democrats) changed their primary process in the ’70s which moved influence away from the party heads to a broader audience (listen to “The Presidents: Campaigning and the Primary System,” American Experience).
• Primaries, party conventions, delegates (and super-delegates), The Election... what is the relationship between all these stages?
• Electoral college (what?! we the public does not elect the President?!!)
• Funding? Who can take money from whom?

“CNet's Top 5” has a list of web sites:

• State government. Most states’ voting is handled by each state’s secretary of state, so they maintain non-partisan information
• Smartvoter.org — run by the League of Women Voters, a lot of information about how elections work.
• votesmart.org
• politicalbase.com — list “issues” and allows commenting on them.
• Glassbooth.org — “quiz” style approach to helping with choices, along with information resources.