Decision ‘08: How boring is it?

A “good movie that’s lasted about a half-hour too long” is how Barack Obama referred to the Democratic race at a rally in Pittsburgh. That was a month ago. Hillary Clinton famously replied, “I like long movies.”

But do voters? Tomorrow’s primaries likely won’t bring any huge surprises, and the question is: Are voters getting fed up and bored with this political version of “A Cure for Insomnia,” the world’s longest movie at 5,220 minutes?

“I think it’s understandable if some people are ready to move on,” says Brian Schaffner, assistant professor in the department of government at American University.

Offers Jeremy Mayer, associate professor at George Mason University: “The bad outweighs the good with our system. Today, the American election for president is by far the longest election process in the world.”

A process that winnows the candidates and wears us down.

“No one sat down and said this is a good way of doing this. Our process is the result of a series of accidents of history,” Mr. Mayer says.

How could it not get boring?

Not only has the presidential campaign been going on for more than a year, but the primary season’s second act, the six-week lag time between the Mississippi primary on March 11 and the Pennsylvania primary on April 22 produced a lot of nastiness — not exactly a feel-good antidote to boredom — in the Democratic race.

“They’re probably not going to be remembered as the best weeks of the campaign,” Mr. Schaffner says. “The types of stories that came out — and were fed by the campaigns — were scandals. There were fewer stories about how big the rallies were and how big voter turnout was; fewer stories that made voters feel good.”

Even the candidates look bored — though that probably won’t affect voter turnout, Mr. Mayer says.

Despite all this, voters don’t seem too weary yet with what might feel like a never-ending, monotonous narrative, says Steven Kull, a political psychologist and faculty member at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland.

“A lot of people probably would like it to be over, but they feel it’s a legitimate process [that has to run its course],” Mr. Kull says. “There isn’t a sense of annoyance, yet. … But there is some indication that people are paying less attention.”

However, offers Mr. Schaffner, this could change, and voters, particularly Democrats, could be recharged this month, which has primaries every Tuesday, starting tomorrow with voting in Indiana and North Carolina. Perhaps the tone and content will again become more political than personal.

Not so fast, Mr. Mayer says. There is still a lot of time left both in the Democratic and general elections for things like pastor-bashing and bitterness.

“If we had a six-week or 10-week campaign, the media wouldn’t have the time for the silly, personal stuff about whose pastor is actually crazier,” Mr. Mayer says. “[It] would have to tell the public about the issues, in a concentrated burst of information.”

In many European nations, campaigns last for only six to eight weeks, which encourages voters and the media to focus on the political agendas rather than personal ones, he says. It’s when you have years-long campaigns that that goal proves more elusive.

“Do Obama and McCain have a new health proposal every week? How can you cover the issues when the issues don’t change very much for a year?” he asks rhetorically.

Stanley Aronson, a medical doctor and professor emeritus at Brown University, recently wrote a piece for the Providence Journal on the psychology of boredom.

“Why do so many people tune out? Boredom would account for some of it,” he says. “But I think frustration and intolerance of sameness have something to do with it too.”

Will the third act of this primary election saga redeem the slow first and nasty second acts? Or will the 800,000-minute-long ordeal put voters to sleep?

“The third act will be the superdelegates making the call,” Mr. Mayer says. “And after that comes the ending where the Democratic candidates have to reconcile and do a ballet of forgiveness.”

But wait — don’t forget about the sequel: John McCain versus ? We’ll just have to keep watching.