In my Government Myths post, posted June of 2005, I said:

Things seem right on track so that by the 2012 election, 2016 at the latest, the campaign for the next [Presidential] election will immediately start after the swearing-in ceremony.

I think I can say that we are officially halfway there. The political news, at least in the blogs, has been abuzz about Clinton v. Obama, as they jockey for the Presidential nomination. I don't know if it's gotten into the mainstream news, but clearly, Clinton and Obama see themselves as in campaign mode already.

(I can't stand TV news not for the usual reasons, but because it's just so slow, an unavoidable characteristic of the medium, not any particular show on it.)

To be honest, at the time I thought I was being cynical, but with the 2008 campaign well underway in Feb. 2006, maybe I wasn't being cynical enough.