Perhaps the reason flag pins and "misremembered" helicopter landings are getting so much of attention is because so many voters have already cast their ballots. Perhaps it is because the Democrats' proposals are so similar on so many issues. Maybe it's a reflection of society in general.

Whatever the case, The Times read many of the lengthy and detailed platforms published by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, with an eye toward commonly talked-about issues. The results are below.

The economy

With middle-class wages stagnant and the cost of living skyrocketing, both candidates have laid out extensive agendas to reach out to average voters who find the American Dream further out of reach than ever.

Barack Obama plans to expand the various tax credits and tax breaks to certain segments of the population, while much of Hillary Clinton's economic platform focuses on improving America's ability to keep jobs and improve free trade agreements.

In all of her appearances in Northwest Indiana, Clinton has reminded the public she is the only candidate who would declare a "time out" on all existing trade deals. The agreements, including NAFTA, are allowing the export of jobs while allowing trading partners like China to cheat by manipulating their currency values and barring import of American goods.

Clinton would also create the job of "trade prosecutor" and double the staff of trade investigators to aggressively go after violators of the retooled trade deals.

Clinton would also create the job of "trade prosecutor" and double the staff of trade investigators to aggressively go after violators of the retooled trade deals.

Both candidates pledged to invest heavily in new "green" jobs and industries, but Obama said he would also make permanent the tax credit that companies now receive on research and development spending.

Obama said he would make sure senior citizens who earn less than $50,000 a year would pay no federal income taxes and would increase the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011.

Obama would also make tax credits for parents more accessible for middle-class families, and create a new $1,000-per-family tax credit to offset income taxes that hit low-income families the hardest.

Clinton said she would return to the federal tax structure of the 1990s, in which higher-income earners paid larger shares of their incomes in taxes than they do now.

Both candidates would create new tax credits to make college more affordable, with Clinton proposing a tax write-off of $3,500 toward tuition, and Obama proposing $4,000.

They both also said they would create funds to help homeowners hit by the foreclosure crisis afford more stable loans. Clinton said she would create a $1 billion assistance fund, while Obama would create a similar fund whose size he did not specify.

Clinton said she would also help homeowners stay in their homes by reducing energy costs through a $1 billion heating assistance program and home modernization initiative that would give away such items as weather-stripping and window insulation.

Obama vowed to get tough on the credit industry by making all credit card companies provide standardized rankings of their products and obey a credit "Bill of Rights" that gives consumers more protections.

Health care

About 47 million Americans are without health insurance, a figure that grew by 3 million in the past five years, studies show.

Yet the profits and administrative costs of insurance companies went up 12 percent between 2000 and 2005 -- the largest single component of health care spending, according to a 2007 study by the Commonwealth Fund Commission.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both proposing large-scale federal efforts to improve health care for those with insurance, to extend coverage to those without it, and to modernize the industry and lower costs for everyone.

Obama estimates his plan will save the average family $2,500 a year, while Clinton used a more conservative $2,200 per-family estimate.

Perhaps the most talked-about provision in both plans is universal health care. Neither proposal would cancel any insurance plan already in place or simply allow anyone to walk into any doctor's office and demand care.

Rather, both plans would create a new federal insurance program similar to Medicare that anyone in America could buy into, regardless of medical history or employment status.

Clinton would make this plan affordable by offering tax credits on income tax forms, while Obama would use direct subsidies to lower the up-front cost based on a family's income.

Clinton and Obama both said employers who don't offer health care plans to employees -- such as large national retailers -- would be forced to pay part of the cost of the new federal insurance program.

Both plans would also allow any individual or company who is dissatisfied with their current insurance to pay for the same program that federal employees and congress members have.

Clinton's proposal would directly extend the existing federal employee's plan to anyone in the public, while Obama's proposal would create a new plan "similar" to the federal plan.

Obama said he would create a new organization called the National Health Insurance Exchange, a watchdog group that would publish information about insurers like profits and administrative costs to help consumers choose the best company for them.

Obama would also force insurers to invest a "reasonable share" of their profits into patient care in markets where corporate mergers have not left enough insurance companies to make up a competitive market.

Clinton's plan relies on tax credits to ensure that any given family's insurance premiums will "never rise above a certain percentage of family income." The plan did not specify the percentage.

She would also offer tax credits to small companies that offer their employees good health insurance and to industries and public employers who need reinsurance to cover large populations of retirees with many "catastrophic" expenses.

Obama's plan does not say how his programs would be funded or what they would cost. Clinton's plan said she would use $54 billion from rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for families earning more than $250,000, along with ending subsidies to health care plans for wealthy families.

And paper? Forget about it. Both candidates said they would offer financial assistance or incentives to doctors and hospitals that switch to more efficient electronic medical billing systems, realizing up to $77 billion in annual cost savings for the whole industry.

The war

With an economy teetering on the brink of recession and a health care system in crisis, the Iraq war gets shoved to the back of the debate in many public forums.

But the United States is spending $10 billion per month on the war, and more than 1 million troops have served in the conflict, which reached its five-year anniversary on March 21.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama say the conflict has now become a civil war among Iraqi factions, and withdrawing American troops on a mass scale will be one of the first orders of business if a Democrat becomes the next president.

Clinton said she would ask the Joint Chiefs of Staff for a plan to begin drawing down troops within 60 days of taking office.

Obama said he would withdraw all combat troops by mid-2009 by removing one or two brigades per month, beginning with those in the most peaceful areas. Obama would likely leave a "residual" number of troops in the country to defend American personnel and continue to fight al-Qaeda In Iraq.

Obama would also have the United Nations lead the Iraqis in holding a constitutional convention that would give the nation's minority Sunni Arabs more rights than under the existing form of government.

Both candidates would convene a regional conference of leaders from surrounding countries to pledge not to interfere in the ongoing civil war and make good on previous aid commitments.

Clinton voted for the Oct. 11, 2002, congressional resolution to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, although she has since tried to deauthorize permission for the war because its stated goals -- toppling Iraq's former government and ensuring nonexistence of weapons of mass destruction -- have been completed.

Obama was an Illinois lawmaker in 2002 when Congress approved the resolution, though his campaign frequently quotes his outspoken opposition to the war at the time.

Gas prices

At prices expected to hit $4 a gallon for regular unleaded this summer, the cost of gasoline is recently looming large on the campaign trail as it drives up not just the cost of commuting but also goods shipped by truck, such as groceries.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both released new proposals in recent weeks as prices at the pump continue to rise.

Both have recently called for a "windfall profits tax" on the oil companies, which are reaping record profits as commuters pinch pennies.

Clinton would use the proceeds of the new tax to fund a "gas tax holiday" that would eliminate the 18.4-cent tax on regular gas and 24.4-cent tax on diesel during busy summer months.

Obama would use the windfall tax to give families assistance on their heating and cooling bills for their homes.

Both candidates said they would also use federal powers to prevent oil companies and traders from manipulating the market for their own profit.

While Obama did not lay out specifics, Clinton said she would have the Federal Trade Commission enforce market manipulation rules. She would also push for changes in the law to force oil futures traders who are driving up costs to report their electronic sales so they can be regulated.

Clinton would also use the World Trade Organization to pressure the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to release more oil onto the world market. And she would allow the U.S. Justice Department to sue OPEC in U.S. courts for antitrust violations.

Both candidates have also fought to end the $7.5 billion in subsidies the oil industry receives from the federal government.

Energy and the environment

Energy costs are rising to the highest level in decades at the same time that many Americans are becoming convinced that the time to act to stop global climate change is upon us.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have rolled out proposals to hit both problems with one solution by investing heavily in new "green collar" jobs and industries.

By and large, the proposals are remarkably similar. They would also use alternative fuel sources to generate power so 25 percent of the nation's electricity comes from renewable energies by 2025.

And both would use "cap-and-trade" systems to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. A cap and trade system implements a limit on the amount of carbon a company can release, and then allows companies to sell their caps to other industries as they modernize. Gradually, the overall pollution level is reduced, and companies have a financial incentive to pollute less.

Both plans would invest $150 billion in "clean energy" jobs and research.

Both would increase fuel efficiency requirements for passenger vehicles. Obama would double the existing standard, from 25 mpg to 50 mpg, by 2027. Clinton would increase the standards to 40 mpg in 2020 and 55 mpg by 2030.

Clinton also had a similar phased-in approach to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Clinton would ban the sale of traditional incandescent bulbs in the 40-watt variety in 2012, and take all varieties off the market by 2020.

Obama said he would phase out all traditional light bulbs by 2014.

Street crime

The number of murders and bank robberies in Northwest Indiana has increased several fold in recent years as the economy has stalled and gang membership has risen.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton proposed similar proposals to fight violent crime.

Both use as a blueprint former President Bill Clinton's COPS program, which put thousands more officers on city streets by funding local police department payrolls with federal dollars. Funding for the program was slashed under President Bush.

Obama has supported a $600 million bill restoring funding for 50,000 officers on the street, while Clinton has proposed a program called "COPS 2.0" that would put 100,000 new officers on the street but did not disclose the cost.

Both said they support the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, which they said would keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals without impinging the Second Amendment rights of gun owners.

The candidates also said they wanted to reduce recidivism by training inmates in jail and after release, and keeping some out of prisons in the first place.

Clinton has also proposed specifically eliminating the mandatory minimum federal sentence for simple crack cocaine possession.