WASHINGTON: "Historic" may well be the most overused word for the White House race, yet the political twists of 2008 have undeniably made this campaign, well, historic.
When voters write the final chapter of this riveting political year on Nov. 4, either Democrat Barack Obama will become the first black president or Republican John McCain will be set to be the oldest, at 72, inaugurated for a first term.
This race shattered glass ceilings of race and gender, annihilated fundraising records and stretched the electoral calendar to unimagined lengths.
The 2008 White House race is the most wide open it's been for decades -- take for example, that this is the first time since 1928 that no president or vice president was on the ballot at any stage.
With the United States coping with its worst economic crisis since the 1930s and more than 150,000 soldiers mired in two foreign wars, political observers believe that future historians may look back on this year as a turning point in American politics.
Obama's fundraising successes have garnered over $600 million to bankroll his campaign, and repeatedly shattered monthly fundraising totals. Total election spending for this presidential election will exceed a billion dollars for the first time ever.
The 2008 campaign also refined the way US presidential elections are fought -- especially through pioneering uses of the Internet.
The Obama effort especially is more virtual online community than traditional political campaign, plugged into sites like Facebook and using tools like text messaging to build a grass roots powerhouse.
The McCain campaign meanwhile broke the mold of traditional political advertising and made up for its funding deficit by releasing YouTube Web ads then watching as the media gobbled them up in hours of free coverage.
In a more ominous note for posterity, Obama was offered Secret Service protection earlier than any other previous candidate, and now has more than President Bush, a sign of racial tensions still simmering below the surface of US society.
(On Monday, two young men, calling themselves "white supremists" were arrested and charged in Tennessee in what federal officials described as a plan to assassinate Sen. Obama and kill dozens of black children at a school.)
Meanwhile, as the campaign enters the final stretch, McCain increasingly is focusing his message on an institution that may be even less popular than President Bush and one he's been a part of most of his adult life: Congress.
Sweeping through key battleground states, McCain is now directing almost as much criticism at other key Democrats as he has on Obama -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"My opponent is out there working out the details with Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid, their plan is to raise your taxes, increase spending and concede defeat in Iraq," McCain said Sunday. "We're not going to let that happen."
McCain's core theme is that electing Obama would give Democrats complete control of the government, a move he argues will lead to more government and higher taxes. It's a message aimed squarely at independent voters in a shrinking number of battleground states that will determine the election's outcome.
Democrats currently hold a razor thin majority in both the House and Senate, and polls suggest they are likely to increase their edge in the election. Few have suggested Republicans can take either chamber back, and McCain argues that leaves only the White House to serve as a check on Democrats. Some have suggested the Democratic gains could be sizable, and McCain says that bolsters his argument that a check is needed.
Also, in this real nail-biter of an election, it is the relatively small handful of so-called "swing states" or battleground states that are predicted to decide the future leader of this nation. Remember that in the 2000 election, Democrat Al Gore won more popular votes than his Republican opponent, then Texas Gov. George Bush. But Bush won the election because he defeated Gore in the electoral vote tally.
Each state has a certain number of electoral votes based on the number of Senate and House members who represent that state in Congress. Each state has two senators, but the number of House seats for a given state depends on population.
California, the largest state, has 53 House members and two senators, for a total of 55 electoral votes. Wyoming, one of the smallest states, has only three electoral votes, taking into account its two US senators and one House member.
As they campaign in the final days, both Obama and McCain will try to cobble together enough electoral votes to get to the magic number of 270 to clinch the presidency.
And in the final days before next Tuesday's election, the candidates are focusing their final efforts to these battleground states; These are: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
"Out of the 50 states, about 40 of them are almost predetermined, and we can call them today. So, the focus is on ten competitive states, relatively competitive," Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told reporters.
"Some of them are complete toss-ups, could go in either direction. I think Ohio and Virginia are in that category. Others may be leaning one way or another. So, we tend to focus on these states because they are the ones in the end who determine who is going to be president."
For example, Republican presidential candidates tend to do well in the deep South and the central states. Democrats do well in the Northeast, along the Pacific coast and in the upper Midwest.
Recent polls give Obama an edge in some of the larger swing or battleground states, states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Obama has been leading even in Florida, the state that gave President Bush his narrow victory over Gore in 2000.
Obama is also doing well in states like Nevada, Colorado and even North Carolina, all of which have tended to vote Republican in recent years.
Finally, swing state voters can expect their front doorsteps and telephones to become battlefields during these final days of the presidential campaign.
Local strategists for both Obama and McCain have unveiled their plans for the final push of the longest campaign, with both pledging that theirs would be the biggest get-out-the-vote effort in these swing states' history.
Both will concentrate their volunteers' firepower on still-undecided voters and those whose support of their candidate remains soft, campaign managers said.
