You're storing the dates as strings instead of as dates? Okay... if it's July 18, 2003, 9:25 am, and you want to find all the posts on that day, then you'll want to find all the posts with posting dates that start with "July 18, 2003". I'm sure a quick look at MySQL's documentation will get you string functions that will do the job, or if you want to be inefficient you could use "like 'July 18, 2003%", but I wouldn't recommend it.
Once you've worked that out, you can just MySQL to COUNT the records and return the result, instead of returning the records themselves.
The corner of his mouth twitched. "You think the dates are being stored like that?"
I shrugged. "I've seen odder ideas implemented. I just don't want to be the one who wants them listed by month."
