I will begin this article by "dating" myself, to prove what a fuddy-duddy I truly am. I do this to avoid anyone who might confuse me with a starry-eyed tween fan of Taylor Swift (not an easy mistake to make, but still...). To wit: the first time I heard the more-modern usage of the term "Swifties," I was confused. To me, a "Swifty" referred to a piece of writing -- a rather amusing juxtaposition of a statement and an adverb, usually used to punnily poke fun at some flamboyant or way-too-cute sentence. The nomenclature comes from the fuller form of the put-down, a "Tom Swifty." This references the main character in a series of young-adult books written a very long time ago about a teenage supergenius with unlimited financial resources, who invented all sorts of futuristic things and battled the forces of evil (who were always ready to thwart Tom's plans to use his inventions for good).

Need an example (or some more information about Tom Swift Sr. and Jr.)? How about:

"I previously wrote about this using a different angle, back in 2017," Chris said, obliquely.

Get it? Or was that just way too acute for you? (My apologies, but I just couldn't resist... heh....)

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The second presidential debate is over and the reviews are in. They are all pretty universally proclaiming Kamala Harris the clear winner and Donald Trump the loser. Pundits are using words like "eviscerated" and "humiliated" to describe how impressive Harris's takedown of Trump truly was last night. For the first time in his political career, Donald Trump was absolutely dominated -- live, on screen, for all of America to see.

It wasn't even close. Even Fox News had to admit Harris won. The only one insisting that Trump won was Donald Trump, who unexpectedly showed up in the post-debate "spin room" to make this rather laughable boast.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris addressed her supporters with Taylor Swift playing in the background (more on this in a moment).

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I thought it'd be a worthwhile thing to take a snapshot once again of the state of the presidential polling, right before tonight's debate happens. This is the first Electoral Math column in roughly a month, so there's been some movement, although it is debatable whether much of it is all that meaningful. Many of the battleground states are balanced so closely that minor movements back and forth aren't really all that significant, at this point. Overall, the picture seems to have improved slightly for Kamala Harris, but it is definitely going to be a very close race, if the polling can be believed.

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Kamala Harris is about to walk a tightrope, in front of the entire country. In tomorrow night's debate with Donald Trump, she's got to achieve two basic but somewhat contradictory goals: appear presidential and in control, but also rattle Trump and get under his skin. Both will be important, but she's really got to achieve both simultaneously, hence the tightrope metaphor.

Harris, unlike Trump, still has to introduce herself to a large portion of the electorate. In a recent poll, 28 percent of voters said they still wanted to learn more about who Harris is before making up their minds about who to vote for. This is not true for Trump -- everybody already knows who he is. Whether you love him or hate him, Trump is a known quantity. Harris still isn't, in many people's minds. So for many, she'll be making a first impression at the debate.

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Traditionally, Labor Day is the kickoff to the "real campaign season." This implies that none of what has gone before really made much of a difference, and that the American people will now give each of the candidates a fresh look as people slowly turn their focus to politics after the summer season is done.

Maybe that was true once, but quite obviously we've been in the midst of the general-election campaign season for most of this year already. There was no drama or mystery about who would become the major parties' nominees -- Donald Trump and President Joe Biden had the primaries wrapped up before they even began. And then the most dramatic event of the general election campaign happened midsummer, as Biden decided to end his candidacy (after a disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump). In other words, plenty has already happened this election season, and so we've got to look at the remaining two months as nothing more than the homestretch.

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Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, entered a guilty plea today in the federal tax evasion case against him. This would have been a much bigger deal, of course, if Joe were still actively running for re-election, but now it will be no more than a political footnote, at least as far as the election is concerned.

It likely won't be a footnote for Hunter, however. He entered guilty pleas on all nine charges against him, and is now facing the possibility of up to 17 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $1.3 million. This is in addition to the possible 25 years in prison he faces in the federal gun charges case, where he was already found guilty and is awaiting sentencing. He likely won't face the maximum penalty in either case, but it does look more likely than not that he will be spending at least some time behind bars. The sentencing on the gun charges will take place in November, and the sentencing in the tax case has been scheduled for December 16th -- both of which will take place after the election.

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In normal times, with normal political candidates, I wouldn't even have to say this. However, since we live in the age of Donald Trump, I do. One week from today is the anniversary of the September 11th attack. People will gather at the site of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers to pay their respects and remember. But this year there may be a problem.

Here's what caught my eye, from a political blog in the New York Times today:

Vice President Kamala Harris, President [Joe] Biden and former President Donald J. Trump are considering visits to the World Trade Center site in New York City on Sept. 11 to memorialize the 2001 attacks.

Which, of course, has the potential to get ugly, since Donald Trump is Donald Trump. The article gives two reasons why this could be problematic:

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One week from today, the two major political parties' presidential candidates will debate each other. Although this will be the second general election campaign debate held, it is not technically accurate to use the word "again" in that previous sentence, since we won't see the same two candidates on stage that we did last time. This is unprecedented in modern American politics, and 2024 might very well be remembered in the future as "the year the debates mattered."

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I am taking Labor Day off this year and hope everyone else is having a great day out there enjoying themselves....

I have to say, President Joe Biden has indeed been the best president Unions and Labor have had in a very long time -- at least since F.D.R. was around. I fully expect Kamala Harris to continue this proud tradition (if she gets the chance).

But as I note, this column wasn't about politics at all. It's just a very personal "thank you" to everyone who got us through some very dark days. It was written at the absolute depths of the COVID pandemic, when going outside or even getting the mail was a very scary thought. But some of us had to do it, each and every day, so that life didn't completely grind to an absolute halt. So today I just wanted to remind everyone of the sacrifices that some brave and mostly-overlooked workers made for us all.

Lest we forget....

Originally published September 7, 2020

I'm mostly taking today off, so this won't be a column about politics. It won't even be a full column, for that matter.

I'm taking the time off in order to get caught up on a few projects around the house, if truth be told. That's right -- I will be laboring on Labor Day. Now, I do realize that delving into the mysteries of under-sink plumbing and towel rack maintenance don't really qualify for the intended purpose of the holiday, so I decided to write this to comment about how important laborers are to the country right now.

It took a pandemic for many people to even notice how essential some jobs are. Who among us ever gave a single thought for the workers who produce toilet paper before this year? And yet suddenly they were at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus (mostly due to rampant panic-buying for no particular reason). The only times I've ever stood in a long line at 6:00 A.M. previously, it was to buy concert tickets when they went on sale. Doing so to get the limited number of toilet paper packages the grocery store released each day was indeed a novel experience, that's for sure.

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This week, the mainstream media proved yet again how good they are at missing the forest for the trees, at least in the political world. The entire week, the chattering classes pushed their new Donald Trump scandal for all it was worth. Now look, we're no fans of Trump (far from it!), but it all just seemed like the attention and outrage were a wee bit misplaced.

The story -- as we're sure you've heard by now -- centered on Donald Trump once again pretending he is still president, this time at Arlington National Cemetery. Trump wanted to highlight the ill-planned and badly-executed American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Three years ago, 13 soldiers were tragically killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a crush of people trying to flee the Taliban's takeover of the entire country. It was a grim moment for President Joe Biden, which is why Trump wanted to make some political hay out of it all.

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