Thursday night's NFL's matchup between the Minnesota Vikings [1] and New Orleans Saints [2] marks the start of the pro football season and the unofficial beginning of fall. But that's not the only kickoff this week. With 55 days to decide until Election Day, training camp is over for Democrats and Republicans and it's time to put on the pads and hit the opponent hard.

Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania Wednesday, Democratic National Committee [3] Chairman Tim Kaine declared that his party's plan for victory in November would be to present Americans with a choice.

He said voters can choose Republicans, who "drove our country into a ditch," and "have not presented a single idea for how to get America growing again." Or Democrats, who Kaine says "are helping us climb out of that ditch," and "are committed to doing everything within their power to help American families, workers, and businesses succeed."

Republicans don't think that kind of strategy will work in November. "No amount of name-calling and fear-mongering will solve skyrocketing unemployment," said Republican National Committee [4] Spokeswoman Katie Wright, "Democrats' campaign solutions are quickly becoming as reckless and empty as the policies that got them into this mess in the first place."

The GOP will launch their campaign drive on September 15th. RNC Chairman Michael Steele will participate in a bus tour that will visit over 100 cities in all 48 continental states. The RNC says that the focus of the tour will be to rally the base and spread the message that Americans need to "fire" House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and return the House to Republican control.

It's still too soon to know which party will have the winning game plan. However, both sides think they have the right strategy to get their team across the goal line with governing majorities.

Published on FoxNews.com (http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com)