Politics 2012: Political potpourri -- so many candidates, so little time

Labor Day is history. Halloween has come and gone. Days are getting cooler as politics are heating up.

Mark your calendars…

The Commission on Presidential Debates set the debate schedule for next year, matching President Obama against his Republican opponent in three venues.

The schedule: Oct. 3 at University of Denver, Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., and Oct. 22 at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla.

Vice President Joe Biden will square off against his GOP challenger in one debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky., in October.

It's the math…

President Obama's polling numbers may be anemic but the electoral votes may be falling in his favor and down-ticket Democrats, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In a close presidential election -- and there's no reason to think 2012 won't be close -- the color of the electoral map offers some signals indicating which states will be key on the campaign stump.

If Al Gore's faceoff against George W. Bush in 2000 taught pundits anything, it's that winning the popular vote won't necessarily win the White House. Winning a combination of states that will produce the magical 270 Electoral College votes will.

Democrats happen to start with a bloc of reliably blue states that is bigger and richer in electoral votes than Republicans, the Journal said. If a Democratic presidential candidate can hang on to this cornucopia, that candidate is further down the road to victory.

Since 1992, 18 states and the District of Columbia have voted Democratic in all five presidential elections, carrying with them a combined 242 electoral votes or 90 percent of the necessary votes.

Republicans have a smaller cache of reliably red states -- 13 in the same time period that deliver 102 electoral votes.

Keeping those states in the Democratic corner won't be easy, though, since Obama is running with an economy in worse shape than in any of the five previous elections, the Journal said. But if he hangs on and adds five states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada and Ohio -- that have voted Democratic more often than not in the past five contests, he'll pick up 281 electoral votes, 11 more than he needs.

Iowa and New Hampshire both offer GOP opportunities, but Ohio with 18 electoral votes, is the ripest target for the GOP among the light-blue states, the Journal reported. Deny Obama Ohio, and he is short seven electoral votes.

"Recent history aside, Obama will have to work hard to keep the Democratic base intact in 2012," political analyst Rhodes Cook wrote in a recent newsletter examining the electoral map. "Not only does it include states on the two coasts, but also industrial battlegrounds such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."

Boehner endorsement not happening…

Republican presidential hopefuls have been working to secure congressional endorsements as the primary season gears up, but a nod from House Speaker John Boehner likely won't be seen.

The Ohio Republican told a conservative radio commentator recently he doesn't plan to endorse a candidate in the primary, The Washington Post reported.

"No, I don't see that happening," Boehner said when asked whether he would back a candidate before the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. "I think we've got a lot of good candidates. They're out there presenting their ideas, and I think it's important to allow those who show up in the Republican primary to choose the candidate of their choice."

Once a party standard-bearer is chosen, though, "I'm going to be there to support him and to move the country in a direction that we can get our economy going again, we can fix our broken tax system and deal with this debt problem," Boehner said.

A tally kept by The Hill indicates former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has secured the most congressional endorsements to date in the GOP race. As of Oct. 18, he had the backing of 31 lawmakers, Texas Gov. Rick Perry had 10, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich picked up five and Rep. Ron Paul garnered three.

What's in a name …

Some politicians and fundraisers have tossed caution to the wind -- and having a bit of fun to boot -- when coming up with names for their political action committees, normally assigned unassuming names so they don't draw much attention.

Roll Call recently sifted through the Federal Election Commission's online list of 2012 election cycle leadership PACs and unearthed a number of committees with names a little catchier -- or at least different.

From the Hone-Your-Skills department: Cactus PAC, Razor PAC and Sharp Pencil PAC.

Filed under the animal kingdom are Husky PAC, Wolverine PAC, Thoroughbred PAC and the Blue Hen PAC, and two committees paying homage to the badger -- Badger Fund Inc. and Badger PAC.

Who Dat PAC harkens to a chant of the New Orleans Saints professional football team while Eye of the Tiger PAC is a tribute to the Fightin' Tigers of Louisiana State University, not the group Survivor.

So far, eight leadership PACs use the word "freedom" and seven mention "leadership" in the title.

PAC names, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told Roll Call, can play a role in attracting attention for a given organization.

"A clever-sounding PAC name on the cover of an envelope or in the heading of an e-mail might evoke a chuckle and cause a recipient to actually open the message," he said. "Half the struggle today is to avoid being tossed or deleted before the recipient sees your pitch. We're all overwhelmed."