What do you think about the long, drawn-out U.S. presidential campaign that has already begun more than 18 months before the election?

In a word -- ridiculous. Only benefits FOX News and CNN, political consultants/pollsters, and the PAC's raising and spending all that money on both sides. That money would be much better spent feeding the one in six kids in America who goes to bed hungry every night.

I think it's obvious that they're wasting their time in vain.

With all due respect, the U.S. presidential campaigns never stop, they just change gear.

But I do agree that shifting into high gear 18 months before the elections is just ridiculous. The end result is merely information overload and that issues and debates get so big and surrounded by so many lies, denials and arguments that you'd need a wall chart to sort out the truth.

It also prejudices the election against the smaller parties who simply don't have the money for an 18 month race.

Election-related activities should start 1 month before the election.

It already began a year (or more) ago.

Absolutely ridiculous. Should limit the campaigns to 3 months, maximum.

Most of us probably feel like we're vegetating every time the talking heads appear on TV and start talking about, debating and carefully analyzing (from top to bottom) each of the political candidates. This one is old but has lots of experience, whereas this one's young and will to lead the country in a new direction, etc. It also isn't good for a sitting president (regardless of party) to be worrying about re-election 18 months prior. Instead, whoever the president is should be making difficult political decisions, not worrying about the latest popularity polls.

Anyway, it's way too early. In agreement with Pandabelle to limit campaigns to 3 months.

I will have to decide which write-in candidate to choose, as I prefer not to have to vote for one of whichever two awful candidates will be on the ballot. I think this year it will be Hulk Hogan, I wrote in Mickey Mouse in the last three elections.

As a Briton I have absolutely zero interest in American politics... and from what I've seen and read about it's dirtier than British politics.

18 months on indoctrination. Even the military doesn't get that much time at boot camp.

And my favorite control apparatus is the The Commission on Presidential Debates. It's a private firm that began in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties to establish the way that presidential election debates are run between candidates for President of the United States. The Commission is a non-profit, and debates are sponsored by private contributions from foundations and corporations. So...Ralph Nader...GO AWAY! because we said so.

Way to go land of the free!! Free to let my fellow $&#% Americans off the hook and let the masters rule over you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Presidential_Debates

Whoever has the most money for advertising and media exposure will probably win, forget the message or political intentions...

US elections are one of the most obscene, insane, colossal wastes of time & $$$$ in the "modern" world.

They are utterly ridiculous & make the US look like a nut house! There are also very SCARY & at times highly ENTERTAINING!

And they really polarize the country, in a nutshell US elections are highly damaging overall, it can take years to recover from them & by THEN they are starting again!!

If the US was smart it would shorten it all down by a massive margin, & for christs sake keep BUSINESSES OUT!! Elections are for PEOPLE not COMPANIES, at least they should be!

Too long.

This time, since it is the end of Obama's 2 terms and he cannot go for re-election, a bit more appropriate to have a full-on election campaign of sorts. It shouldn't be 18 months long, though.

However, when a President goes for re-election 18 months before his term is up, it is wasting valuable time to actually work on issues at hand.

Either way, it is way too long.

Well, at the moment the campaigning would be intra-party wouldn't it? I.e. People are announcing their desire to be picked as their party's presidential candidate, not 'properly' running for president yet. They still have to win that right.

In that context, though 18 months is still probably 'too long', it's probably worth remembering that it is a two-stage process.

Can you imagine having to listen to those, to put it nicely, noisy Japanese election trucks all day long for a year and a half ?

The process gearing up right now is for the "primaries": the elections that will decide who will represent the two major parties in the presidential elections. The actual Presidential campaigns won't really start until the Democratic and Republican candidates are determined. But yeah, this whole process is exhausting.

However, when a President goes for re-election 18 months before his term is up, it is wasting valuable time to actually work on issues at hand.

Obama has reached his limit on the number of consecutive terms he can be President. Any campaigning he will be doing this election cycle will be for someone else.