Long presidential campaign not yet tiring voters

LONG BEACH, New York (Reuters) - With his wetsuit around his waist, Peter Flintoft walks wearily along the Long Beach boardwalk. While worn out by the surf, he is not yet tired of the lengthy U.S. presidential campaign.

"Some people find it good theater. I ... like it. It's entertaining to a degree," said Flintoft, 30, who works in television production in New York.

U.S. voters are in the midst of one of the world's longest election campaigns -- the race will have lasted nearly two years by the time the nation's 44th president is chosen on November 4 to succeed Republican President George W. Bush.

But experts say, despite earlier predictions, voters do not seem fatigued by the campaign.

"Ultimately, while some voters think the campaign is too long, it's not clear that this has translated into any real fatigue or disengagement," said John Sides, political science professor at George Washington University in Washington.

"Much about this election suggests that voters are energized and enthused," he said, pointing to high voter turnout in state-by-state contests to choose the Democratic and Republican nominees and to increased campaign donations.

But with Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain set to be approved as their party nominees in late summer, some experts say voters may switch off a bit and rest until then.

"Their minds are elsewhere, at least for the moment," said Thomas Patterson, professor of government and the press at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. "But if something riveting happened, they would be pulled back in in a second."

CELEBRITY POLITICIANS

At Long Beach, about 30 miles east of Manhattan, Ann Hamilton, 42, escaped the city with her daughter, Emma, 4, for a day at seaside.

"I pay less and less attention to the news because of the length of the campaign," said Hamilton, who plans to vote for Obama. "People are ready for it to happen now, and it's not happening until November."

A poll by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press taken in late June found two-thirds of respondents are following news of the presidential candidates "closely" -- a finding similar to polls taken about the same time before elections in 2004, 2000, 1996 and 1992.

Heavily tanned personal trainer Joe Catrambone, 68, from Long Beach, said he is "fanatical" about the campaign.

"I'm not tired of it," he said, lounging in a deck chair, watching his 5-year-old grandson, Tyler, play in the sand.

"Just like people don't get bored with celebrities like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Britney Spears, it's the same thing," he said. "We have made politicians into celebrities."

Douglas Muzzio, Baruch College professor of public affairs at the City University of New York, said voters could be split into two camps.

"A lot of voters are really fired up, or ticked off, and most others haven't been paying all that much attention," he said.

Unlike the United States, in countries like France, Japan and Britain, official election campaigns run from roughly a couple of weeks to a month, although unofficial campaigning can sometimes start several months beforehand.

Typically in the United States, the nomination season begins in January of the election year but this time candidates began launching their campaigns a full year ahead of that.

Paula Killeen, 48, of Oceanside, New York, at the beach with her 12-year-old twins, Kelly and Michael, said she will vote for McCain and described the campaign as a "carnival."

"It should just be a three, four month ordeal. Put your cards on the table, what are you going to do for the American country," she said. "I'm sick of it."

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and David Wiessler)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)