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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CNN has begun to release "teaser" quotes from tonight's big interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, in an effort to build interest (and ratings). Among other tidbits, it was announced that Harris committed to appointing at least one Republican to her cabinet. This actually isn't all that unusual; the practice of bringing in a few members of the opposing party so a president can brag about having a "team of rivals" (the phrase originally referred to Abraham Lincoln's cabinet). But it did start me wondering about which department(s) she might be thinking about.

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Two Tuesdays from now, the two major presidential candidates are set to have a debate. At this point it seems more likely than not that both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will actually show up, although the details are still being hashed out between the two camps. The biggest sticking point seems to be whether the microphones will be live throughout the entire evening or whether they will be muted when the other candidate speaks. What is rather mystifying is that the positions have been reversed in this squabble -- it is Harris who is arguing for live microphones, while Trump wants them muted. Which leaves me to wonder whether we'll get a real debate or whether it will devolve into a shouting match.

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It has now been announced that CNN's Dana Bash has won the journalistic sweepstakes and will be conducting a joint interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Thursday. This will fulfill a promise Harris made to sit down for an unscripted interview with the media before the end of the month.

Which directly leads to the question of what Harris and Walz should be asked about on Tuesday. So putting on our late-summer "If It Was Me" thinking cap, here are the questions I would ask Harris and Walz, if they were sitting down with me for an interview.

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[Editorial Note: We do apologize for not hewing to our usual Friday format here today, but we decided at the start of the week to write our round-up reviews of each night of the Democratic National Convention on the following day. Our usual Friday Talking Points will resume next week, but today we've got to go over the final night of the big Democratic wingding in Chicago.]

Over its first three days, the Democratic National Convention kept building on one overriding theme: joy. Or, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained to Stephen Colbert last night, for Democrats it was "the rebirth of hope." I almost expected Beethoven's Ode To Joy to be played at some point, but I guess the various DJs didn't have a copy. A far different Alex -- the main character in A Clockwork Orange -- would have been seriously disappointed by this omission, since (as he put it) it would have added: "all the banging and creeching about Joy Joy Joy Joy." The lack of "Ludwig Van" aside, though, it certainly was a joyful event for the first three nights.

Last night, however, was best summed up by Kamala Harris (when she was quieting the crowd before her speech): "Let's get to business." It was a more somber and sober night, with an emphasis on national security, crime and punishment, gun control, veterans, and Republicans urging other Republicans to vote Democratic this time around. That's not to say there weren't joyful moments (there were!), but the overall mood seemed more serious in general. In fact, the lineup for last night was nowhere near as star-studded as the first three nights have been, which might have been intentional (they didn't want anything to overshadow Harris's acceptance speech, maybe?). In this vein, disappointing millions, neither Beyoncé nor Taylor Swift showed up.

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