Endless Campaigns, Instant Campaigns

Aristotle once said (roughly) "moderation in all things."

Last Year Arnold Swartzeneggar won a very short election. There was little time for people to really think about who was more qualified, there was only a single debate, and there were no run-offs, so many candidates of similar persuasion may have cancelled each other out. Too short elections seem to favor BIG personalities over qualifications.

This year, and last year, we are faced with the extremely long election between two candidates that were pre-selected long before the recent conventions. In this tie I think people are getting exhausted by listening to the arguments. Many of the swing voters seem to be frustrated by continuing to here of mismanagement of the war, the economy, health care, accusations of dodging service, illegal funding, collusion with big business, etc... My conclusion overly long elections favor whoever has the 'nicest' or most approachable personality. People like Bush, and a year's worth of evidence of his incompetance merely tires them, they don't want to hear it any more.
The long election might get him elected because the message gets old after a while.

Maybe both sides are aware of this. The question is, can we stop it? Or failing that, can anything be done to deal with it?