100 days to go: The Presidential race's red-letter days (Sept. 22, the first vote is in the mail.)

[DeepModem Mom]

USA Today: 100 days to go: The presidential race's red-letter days
By Susan Page, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The longest presidential election season in American history is about to enter its final stretch. Count 'em: 100 days to go. In the time before Nov. 4, running mates will be chosen and platform skirmishes fought, economic reports released and as many as one-third of votes cast early by absentee ballot and at registrars' offices. Will more U.S. troops be pulled out of Iraq? Could a so-called October surprise be sprung, by calculation or catastrophe, that reshapes the campaign's close?...

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"Neither campaign has made the sale," says Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who helped run presidential campaigns for Ronald Reagan in 1984, Ross Perot in 1992 and Mike Huckabee this year. "The battle is the independent vote, and they don't make up their minds until late."

As they do, here are events to watch between now and Nov. 4.

• AUG. 8: FIGHTING OLYMPICS FEVER

The opening of the Summer Olympics creates a black hole for politics as voters tune in to gymnastics and swimming instead of town halls and attack ads. "The Olympics generally suck all the air out of a political campaign," Rollins says. How can a candidate break through during the Olympics' two-week run?

One strategy: join the Games. The Obama campaign is buying a $5 million Olympics ad package on NBC that includes time on the broadcast network and its cable affiliates. The McCain campaign isn't ready to disclose its plans for the Olympics time period, spokesman Brian Rogers says, though it's unlikely to include such a pricey buy. Some advisers suggest unveiling his choice of running mate before the Games begin to seize attention....

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• SEPT. 15: BRINGING MORE TROOPS HOME

By week's end, the last of the additional U.S. combat forces deployed to Iraq last year are scheduled to have been withdrawn. That will start a 45-day "pause" U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus requested before considering more reductions of the 140,000 American troops that will remain in the war zone. So in mid-September, if levels of violence stay relatively low, Petraeus could well recommend that more troops be pulled out — perhaps a brigade or two by the end of the year....

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SEPT. 22: THE VOTE IS IN THE MAIL

Voters who can't make it to the polls on Nov. 4 — soldiers heading abroad, students away at school, arrestees in jail awaiting trial — can begin casting ballots in Virginia on this day. That opens a voting season that now starts long before Election Day in states across the country....

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• SEPT. 26: (THE FIRST DEBATE)...

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• OCT. 1: AN OCTOBER SURPRISE?...

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• Oct. 30: (RECESSION?)

On the Thursday before the election, the Commerce Department issues its advance estimate of third-quarter GDP, a broad measure of the economy's health. A contracting economy could signal the start of a recession, defined as back-to-back quarters of negative growth....

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-27-100days_N.htm

[DeepModem Mom]

1. A little self-kick. Posted early, and these dates, and the possibilities they raise...

seem kind of interesting.