For the past six months, people have been talking non-stop about this year’s presidential race. Since the primary season, and even for several months before it, you couldn’t turn on a television, open a newspaper, on log onto the web without seeing some bit of information on one or all of the candidates.
It seems like this year’s election was longer and more drawn out than the rest of those that I remember. Maybe I wasn’t paying as much attention to the Bush elections or maybe it is the rash of media attention that has accompanied this “historic” race, but either way I feel I’ve been inundated with political information over the last few months.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this political season. Watching the debates, arguing for and against a candidate and analyzing the messages that the politicians are trying to send has been a fun pass time for me, but with only one more week to go until the election, I think a lot of people may be getting tired of hearing the same things over and over again.
At first it was a lot of fun. We got to speculate about who the next President would be. Polls showed one candidate having a minuscule lead over the other. Anonymous Internet sources would spout fake rumors about a candidate’s financial backers, religion or wardrobe and conversations would buzz about the topics. But, after hearing the same rumors circulating for the millionth time or seeing the same poll with barely any perceptible change, I’m getting tired of looking, and if I’m sick of it, think about all the people who weren’t enjoying it quite so much to begin with.
Months of coverage and debates led up to the primary elections. The New York Primary was held in February. Eight months have passed since that time, and the non-stop barrage of in-depth interviews with every cable news show, morning talk show and check-out aisle magazine have followed.
I’m glad the candidates have been available to the media. I’m glad we got to find out so much information about what they want to do for the country and where they stand on the issues, but with so much media coverage, I think we’ve been given way too much information that doesn’t matter as well. I don’t care where the candidates buy their clothes or which celebrities plan to support them. I don’t care how many people have been influenced by their fashion or what pets they plan on bringing to the White House. I’m glad the candidates have given Americans the chance to get to know them, but I’m also glad that we only have one more week to go before the election.