One can hardly go anywhere or talk to anyone these days without hearing about the public weariness of the various political campaigns and the constant barrage of warmed-over claims, charges and counter-charges. There are no clear-cut violators, this is an equal-opportunity circus where every office-seeker of note is guilty of overkill and overexposure.

We are aware particularly of the constant media coverage of Republican John McCain and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the presidential maneuvering. But in many a state, other candidates for office are also involved in the constant bombardment of constituents who keep hearing the same things over and over and are generally getting sick of it.

If anyone or any group had the courage to broach these issues and then shove through some remedies, think how much better off we would be.

A surefire solution has three all-too-sensible tenets: Limit the lengths of political campaigns at all levels; set hard and fast limits on how much money can be spent; put in place an administrator with the clout to penalize the violators and make it stick.

Any candidate for any office should not need more than six months to get across his or her message and possible solutions to various problems. There are those who think three months would be even better, but that might be a bit too restrictive. The point is, if McCain, Clinton and Obama, and all the other office-seekers, cannot get across in six months what they stand for and what they intend to do if elected, they’re not well organized or don’t really have as much to offer the electorate as they would like to have us believe.

Spending! It’s exorbitant, obscene and wasteful and there is more than passing evidence that after one or two presentations and appearances, the bleatings begin to fall on deaf ears. We are told how vital it is to get to “the issues.” Same old, same old, same old. Why can’t that be done in six months rather than two years, the latter if we are lucky to get off that cheaply?

If somebody could establish campaign and expense limits, then there has to be an individual or a group to keep track of violations and make it painful for those who are guilty.

We’re told how vital it is for candidates for office to keep reminding us what they intend to do upon election and to update their theories as events might dictate. Well, if the six-months campaign limit precedes immediately before the election date, there would be plenty of opportunity to appear “current.”

We’ve had enough talk for well over two years and we are quite aware of who is running for office and what these candidates are trying to sell us. They have been spending millions of dollars trying to win votes.

Enough! This has been one of the most draining political periods we have ever seen and the next time around may be even worse . . . unless campaign and spending limits can be set, and we make sure they are observed.