Novel Ideas in Politics

I know I've said it before, but at this stage of the game, I just don't really think polls on next year's presidential elections in Brazil are useful. There's still too much time between now and October 2010. And as this report on the latest poll numbers points out, the four candidates it has numbers for aren't even official. Why not? Because "so far none of the Brazilian political parties has formalized its presidential candidates." And it's not because primaries haven't occurred yet; there really aren't primaries in Brazil in the way they operate in the U.S. Imagine that - presidential campaigns that only begin in earnest in the year of the elections, rather than 16 months before the elections. What a novel idea....