EJ Dionne, Jr/Washington Post:
At last, a Labor Day when workers can celebrate their power
“Working people are reclaiming our power,” AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler declared in her pre-Labor Day speech last week. You’d expect her to say that, but there’s a difference this year: Any labor leader making that claim a decade ago would have been on far shakier ground.
President Joe Biden/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
Bidenomics is working in Wisconsin. We’re investing in American workers.
Labor Day honors the dignity of the American worker and recognizes that Wall Street didn’t build AmericaI’m proud of the historic laws I’ve signed that are leading our recovery and resurgence. More than 13 million jobs, including 800,000 in manufacturing. Unemployment below 4 percent for the longest stretch in 50 years. More working-age Americans are employed than at any time in the past 20 years. Inflation is near its lowest point in over two years. Wages and job satisfaction are up. Restoring the pensions of millions of retired union workers – the biggest step of its kind in the past fifty years.
But the real hero of our story is the American worker. It’s nurses and homecare workers who put on protective gear and cared for our loved ones. It’s truck drivers and grocery workers who get up every day to keep our shelves stocked. It’s bricklayers, steelworkers and machinists who are restoring American leadership in the industries of the future.
This is a preview of how the campaign will run on Bidenomics.
The leaked internal poll numbers scrambling the GOP primary
The DeSantis campaign is trying to shape the race with its own data.
The poll showing an Iowa bounce was put out by nonprofit group Citizen Awareness Project, which isn’t allowed to promote a candidate explicitly but hired DeSantis’ polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies. The same week, a pollster working for the super PAC backing former President Donald Trump wrote a memo of its own. That memo, published by Axios, indicated DeSantis had “flatlined” in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
Another post-debate poll conducted for the Trump campaign was also “obtained” by Semafor. And it found — big surprise — that Trump was 45 points ahead of DeSantis.
There’s a difference between nonpartisan pollsters and an internal poll. Internal polls might be okay but you can’t tell without seeing them all (My candidate is up by 20! But it’s down from 50 and then 35, which we are not showing you.)
Steven Beschloss/”America, America” on Substack:
What Kind of Leader Do You Want?
[Senator Mitch ] McConnell’s staff released a letter from the attending physician of Congress saying he was “medically clear to continue his schedule as planned.” But it was Biden’s graceful comments that may have done more to sustain the 81-year-old Republican and his desire to hold onto power (even as conservative outlets like The National Review insist it’s time for McConnell to “step aside”).
This has led me to reflect on the value of a leader who chose to model kindness at a political opponent’s moment of weakness. We all know the ugly ways the previous White House occupant would have exploited such a vulnerability, not just for political advantage but also because he relishes cruelty as a (false) show of strength.
Remembering earlier times, when a simple, public act of decency might have seemed like no big deal, Biden’s grace note is reason for pause. (Yes, the more cynical among us might think 80-year-old Biden’s main concern was to neutralize Republicans and other critics determined to condemn him for his age.)
First graders who survived Sandy Hook shooting still ‘trying to heal’ as they enter senior year
“I was in first grade and we were going to make gingerbread cookies when an active shooter came into my classroom and shot down my classmates and my teachers in front of me and one of my friends told me and a couple of other people to run because the shooter’s gun jammed and we all ran out of the school and started running on the driveway and onto the main road and a family friend saw us and pulled over and asked what happened,” Ehrens told Hearst Connecticut Media. “We told her what happened, and she picked us up and drove us to the police station. I’ve been trying to heal ever since.”
It’s been that long, and it still feels raw.
Jason Rezaian/Washington Post:
Bill Richardson understood what mattered most about U.S. hostages
As with his political career in elected and appointed positions, it wouldn’t be accurate to say Richardson was universally admired, or even appreciated, among those consumed by this urgent work. Passions rightly run high on these issues, and wrong steps can have life-or-death consequences. With so much at stake, of course people disagree on strategies and the best answers to hard choices.
Many in government felt that Richardson sometimes overstepped during his travels and other efforts to free detainees held in North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Cuba, Russia and other places. Some have told me they believe he even complicated several cases. But there can be no debate about the role that Richardson played in the release of dozens of Americans held abroad.
I can’t speak to Richardson’s broader career, but I know this part of his life’s work well. I first met him at a gathering he organized at FBI headquarters in Washington to discuss the challenges posed by Iranian hostage-taking. He brought together a group of law-enforcement officials, former members of Congress, current staffers, former hostages and others with unique perspectives on the phenomenon.
Politico Playbook:
The conservative case for keeping Trump off the ballot
FRONTIERS OF CON LAW — The most important article you need to read today is Erica Orden on Trump and the Fourteenth Amendment.
Before we get into the legal nitty-gritty of whether the amendment’s sanction for those who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” applies to Trump, let’s tackle the immediate political impact.
Every governor and secretary of state in America will soon be asked and need to have an answer for the following question: Do you believe the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies Trump from appearing on your state’s ballot?
For many state officials the answer will be an easy no, and there are respectable arguments they can lean on. Former federal judge MICHAEL McCONNELL, for instance, warns it would be “profoundly anti-democratic” to leave ballot qualification decisions in the hands of other partisan politicians.
But for many other officials who are 14A-curious there is a growing body of work, mostly from scholars with impeccable conservative credentials, that will be difficult to ignore:
