Thoughts on the long campaign

I was thinking about what a pain the ass our presidential campaigns have become. It takes 21 months for us to figure out who we want as our next president? Really?

It seems ridiculous that anyone should have to campaign that long to convince us that he or she should be president. It wastes a huge amount of time and money to run a primary and a general election campaign for that long. It drives most Americans crazy to have to hear about the election for that long. Personally, it makes me tired by this point ... I just want the election over with.

I thought that instead of reforming campaign finance laws, we should just institute a legally mandated campaign time frame, like some other countries have. Say, six weeks for the primary and six weeks for the general election. Any campaign-like activities outside of that time frame gets you fined, tossed in jail or both.

But, I just had a contrary thought. Maybe it's good that it takes this much time to choose our president. Not only do we get a lot of time to become familiar with a candidate's positions and policies, but we get a lot of time to see what they really are like. A 21-month campaign is probably the most difficult experience in American politics, outside of actually being president for four years. If we're choosing someone to lead our nation, I want to see how they can handle the pressure for month after month of hard campaigning.

Not only do candidates have to travel across the nation over and over again, gaining the trust and confidence of the electorate, they have to make a million different decisions as to how to manage their campaigns, what strategies to pursue and how to pursue them, and how to raise the money to pay for all of it. I think this really tests the leadership abilities of a candidate and gives us an excellent view into how they will lead in office.

Maybe the long election cycle isn't such a bad thing after all.