The regular season

Fred Barnes, political commentator and football fan, pointed out today in a discussion panel that, "...the pre-season is over". He was, of course, referring to the presidential election pre-season which just happens to essentially coincide with the NFL schedule. Both contests, it would appear, are now beginning in earnest.

For their part, The Democratic contenders just recently started to trade barbs meant to inflict more than mere flesh wounds. Hillary Clinton and Obama still never seem to be able to mention each other by name, but the distinction drawing has become sharper as of late. Obama indirectly refers to Clinton when he insists that experience in Washington is in fact a detriment to a presidential candidate rather than an asset. Clinton makes almost exactly the inverse argument; that experience in Washington is needed in these uncertain times and that we cannot afford to elect an unseasoned political rookie at this particular point in history. The gloves are not yet off, on the Democratic side, but we are getting close to some sort of direct confrontation between two candidates who, up until this point, seem too terrified to even mention their counterpart by name.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney has cultivated early success in some of the key battle ground states in which the earliest primary elections are held. Overall, Rudy Guiliani is still the odds on favorite, but Romney's tactics of flooding markets with television ads and his overall strategy to dominate early in the early states to gather momentum might prove formidable down the stretch. As far as the rest of the Republican field, John McCain has essentially fizzled at this point (but may stage a comeback) and TV actor Fred Thompson has only now thrown his hat in the ring.

With another summer fading into only a memory, the professional sport of presidential politics has officially begun.