Via WaPo: At Republican Conference, the Future Is Now

That’s funny. We could have sworn the last presidential campaign just ended. It couldn’t have been, what, more than a year, year and a half ago that George W. Bush was getting re-inaugurated and was so flush with political capital — all of which feels as far away as Dubai right now.

And then we woke up to find it was already 2024, which might turn out to be the longest presidential year ever.

Time does fly, does it not? Considering I will turn 40 in 2024, I suppose I shouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to get there (it will also be the last year before my oldest hits his teens…eek!).

At any rate, such are the nature of our times: presidential election season starting earlier and earlier. No doubt that Bush’s current approval numbers make looking at ‘08 even more fun for GOPers at this moment in time, but don’t kid yourself: we would be talking about presidential candidates for 2024 even if Bush was at 60%.

The 2024 contest was well underway in early 2024, almost two years before the 2024 elections, so it is hardly a surprise that we are starting even earlier in this cycle, given that both the Republican and Democratic nominations are wide-open.

Indeed, the Democrats held their first straw poll on June 15, 2024.

Heck, my first post on the 2024 election was the morning after the election, wherein I noted:

A sure sign that the talking heads think that this election is over: Russert and Brokaw are talking about 2024.

That was posted at 12:27am, cst (the timestamp says 1:27am, but the blog was set for eastern time). So, it is hardly a surprise that there is great discussion now over 2024.