It is quite likely the only reprieve Americans will get from what is expected to be an especially heavy and sustained barrage of political advertising this fall. But on Sept. 11, President Obama and Mitt Romney have agreed to suspend their campaign commercials.
Their decision follows similar steps taken in 2004 and 2008, when both presidential nominees ceased campaign activities for the day in honor of the lives lost in the 2001 terror attacks.
A group called MyGoodDeed, which pushed to establish Sept. 11 as a national day of remembrance, had called for a pause in campaigning.
Navigating Sept. 11, which falls at the beginning of the presidential campaign's homestretch, has been a tricky maneuver for candidates. In 2008 Mr. Obama and his rival, Senator John McCain, appeared together at the World Trade Center site.
Four years earlier, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry honored the day separate ly, Mr. Kerry at a memorial in Boston and Mr. Bush in a live radio address from the White House.
