The electoral college is getting a lot of press lately. Everyone's screaming about how it's unfair and unreasonable and winning the popular vote is the only thing that should matter.

Please. The electoral college -- now, that's how real life works.

At least it's the way love works. Love is just like this presidential election. Winning the popular vote doesn't matter. Sometimes you win the popular vote and you still lose just because of some complicated, elusive mind confusion your significant other has going on.

Suppose someone you're dating genuinely likes you. You have a lot of fun together. Their friends think you're hot. Their family approves. You've got the popular vote hands down.

But somehow that just doesn't guarantee you'll be elected boyfriend or girlfriend.

There are all these different characteristics of a person -- personality, sexual performance, career goals, cooking ability, what have you -- which go into a person's final decision. All of those characteristics get ranked by how important they are to any Seeking Single.

Maybe the person you date has to have a great sense of humor. Sense of humor is your California, bringing in 54 electoral votes. Losing California could cost someone the election. But winning California means that if they didn't like Charlie's Angels -- and consequently lose the measly 3 electoral votes of Delaware representing their taste in movies -- you just might not care. (Though I can't recommend this in practice. Dating someone who didn't like Charlie's Angels would just be bad judgement.)

If your date wins the big states then all of the annoying little ones don't matter so much. They just might be able to get the 270 electoral votes necessary to be voted into office without them. On the other hand, if they lose the big state of New York (33 votes for physical appearance) but win all the others, congratulations -- they could still be Commander in Chief.

But here's the trick of it. Much like the electoral college, every state is black and white. You can't get a "hmm, maybe, sort of smart enough" and become a winner. That's the kind of thing that goes into the general mix on the popular vote . . . but when it comes down to whether they're attracted to you, you simply are smart enough or aren't. You have to pass some basic threshold to win all the votes in the state. It's all or nothing.

Which is why Florida becomes a problem. Some weird swing state that you just didn't bargain on. You thought you had it in the bag, or hey, let's face it, you didn't even think about it. And then, surprise, it turns out to be the key to your whole campaign.

Florida is the kind of thing which can throw a solid popular vote contender off. I once dated a guy I adored. He adored me too. I had nailed the popular vote hands down.

But his Florida was whether or not his parents would perceive his getting involved in a long distance relationship as being a sign of instability. I kid you not. I lost all of Florida's votes. On some weird inner psyche issue he had yet to work out with his therapist.

Another woman ended up taking the country.

And Gore is worried about unfairness? That, my friends, is unfair.

Nope, I say the electoral college should stay. It's the closest thing to real life we've got.

This story is based on a concept by Holly Wittenberg, developed by Catherine Cooke, and refined by the Dating Diva.