So the elections are in less than five days. And I can't wait for it to be over. (Sort of like the World Series). Frankly, this whole process of electing a President (at least in the United States) is exhausting. It's rather ridiculous that the campaigning starts more than a year before Election Day. I keep asking myself how any incumbent President could possibly do his job during the year leading up to the election? If you're so focused on giving stump speeches and traveling all over the country, who's really running the country? This worries me.
So why can't we run things more like Britain? The nominees don't even emerge until 6 weeks before the election, and then that's it, they have 6 weeks. We don't have to be pounded over the head with back and forth nasty political advertisements for more than a year. Just 6 weeks. Meanwhile, there are important issues that we should be talking about that get left by the wayside because we're so focused on who's going to be the next President.
I agree that this is probably the most important election in a generation, but perhaps we should analyze this process as a whole and change things to make it a little less...tiresome. Make the debates more like debates and less sound-bitey, shorten the campaign cycle, get the media to give exposure to third party candidates, and hold politicans accountable for their actions (damn Zell Miller and his spitball metaphor!)...is that too much to ask?
All I know is that I am waking up early on Tuesday to get in line to vote. And you better be too!
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