1.  As a rule, the White House does everything in its power to produce a favorable economic climate in the months before the presidential showdown.

2.  Despite the pending conventions, Democratic and Republican senators stayed clear of directly invoking the presidential showdown into their often heated debate on the proposed estate-tax repeal.

3.  Rita Whillock, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who said the debate bore little resemblance to previous, more rancorous vice presidential showdowns.

4.  Romer and Keating also had predictably different views of a possible presidential showdown between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush.