Two weeks to make their case
WASHINGTON -- Their contest tightening, John McCain and Barack Obama are heading into a two-week roller-coaster ride that will help define their candidacies and launch their campaigns into the general election.
On the calendar: the keenly awaited announcements of their running mates and the first back-to-back national political conventions in more than half a century.
Obama told USA TODAY on Thursday that he had decided on a running mate but declined to say who it was. "I won't comment on anything else until I introduce our running mate to the world," he said in Chester, Va.
His campaign has scheduled a rally Saturday on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where he announced his presidential campaign nearly 19 months ago.
The Democratic convention opens Monday in Denver, followed a week later by the Republican convention in St. Paul. McCain has scheduled his own rally at the Nutter Center in Dayton next Friday, when his choice of running mate may be unveiled.
After an August lull when Olympic medals and Russia's invasion of Georgia seized the headlines, the presidential contenders begin what strategists call a critical period. Many voters are just beginning to tune in to politics as the presidential race is essentially tied.
"A major fight at the Republican convention over the vice presidential nominee, a major controversy over what Bill or Hillary (Clinton) say or how they're treated — just the fact that everybody's watching creates the potential for something dramatic," says political analyst Stuart Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.
Meanwhile, Democrats gleefully seized on McCain's comments in an interview with Politico posted Thursday that he wasn't sure how many houses his family owned — "I'll have my staff get to you," he responded — as evidence he is out of touch with the lives and financial strains of many Americans.
Obama now leads by 1 percentage point in Gallup's daily tracking poll and by 1.3% in the RealClearPolitics.com average of recent nationwide polls — his smallest edge since clinching the nomination in June.
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