The Electoral College, at first, seems like an arbitrary measure that serves little purpose other than to insert error into the election process. However, I do believe it serves a very important purpose. Although having it means a President can be elected without winning the popular vote, (1) this happens very seldomly (the last time was in 1888), and (2) you STILL have to be very close.

On the other hand, what the electoral college does do is make a strong statement. It would not make for a strong nation if its leader were elected on the basis of, say, 43% of the popular vote (while the runner up gets 41% or something). The electoral college sacrifices a couple of percentage points of absolute accuracy in exchange for being able to present to the world the statement that we, as a nation, have gotten behind a specific leader and intend to support that leader. That may not sound like an important thing, and I wish I could voice what I'm trying to say in more specific and compelling words, but it is important, both domestically and internationally, that we have a stronger statement of unity than what we'd get every time without the electoral college.

Consequently, I think the electoral college is rather ingenius.