What is the electoral college supposed to protect against?

The Electoral College was originally set up to protect
against too much democracy.  The Framers of the Constitution did not want the people to
vote directly for the president because they wanted the president to be relatively
immune to pressure from the people.  They wanted the president to be able to do what was
right rather than what was popular.

Today, the Electoral
College no longer serves this function since electoral votes are given out based
entirely on the popular vote.  Today, the Electoral College exists mainly because of
tradition.  It is unlikely ever to be abolished, though, because the small states would
never ratify an amendment abolishing it.  The Electoral College gives smaller states
more votes than their populations warrant because each state, no matter how small, has
two senators.  This means that every state has at least 3 electoral votes even if it
does not have 1/150 of the population of the US.

People who
defend the Electoral College argue that it maintains the relevance of the states.  They
argue that presidential candidates would ignore small states if it were not for the
Electoral College and that they would not tailor their appeals to the people of specific
states.  In this way, the Electoral College is seen as something of a bulwark of
federalism and the power and importance of the states.