I'm currently reading "American Lion" by John Meacham, and this line about Andrew Jackson's ascension to the Presidency reminded me (again) at just how little history our current class of political pundits know:

Yet within eight months of his losing the White House to John Quincy Adama in the election of 1824, the campaign of 1828 was underway.

On TV, pundits periodically decry the supposedly earlier and earlier start of campaigns. It's not new, and goes back to the revolutionary generation itself - Jefferson was scheming towards the 1800 election right after 1796.