PEP RALLY: Speaking before a sea of signs that said “Coach Walz,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school football coach, told crowd at the Democratic convention that, “It’s the fourth quarter,” and “We’re down a field goal.”

  It was the most consequential speech of Walz’s political career before a packed United center in Chicago and a national television audience. Accepting the Democratic nomination for vice president, Walz continued in the coach mode saying, “It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal. But we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball. We’re driving down the field. And boy, do we have the right team.”

  Walz and other speakers tried to keep it in a conciliatory mode, telling the delegates that people who support Donald Trump are not the enemy. “That family down the road — they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they are your neighbors,” Walz said. “You look out for them, and they look out for you.”

  Former President Bill Clinton in a croaky voice urged Democrats to engage neighborly debate saying, “I urge you not to demean them, but not to pretend you don’t disagree with them if you do — treat them with respect, just the way you would like them to treat you.”

  And while the Republican convention had Hulk Hogan, the Democrats got a surprise visit from Oprah Winfrey who had the audience on their feet encouraging them to “Let us choose the sweet promise of tomorrow over the bitter return to yesterday.” Climaxing her speech she said, “We won’t be sent back, pushed back, kicked back, we are not going back.”

2025: Democratic speakers have been pinning responsibility for the voluminous Project 2025 on the chest of Donald Trump, who claims he knows nothing about it. The “Project” is a Republican plan for sweeping change in the federal government including elimination of the department of Education and replacing civil servants with Trump loyalists. 

  “Saturday Night Live” star Kenan Thompson walked onto the convention stage carrying a prop book made to look like the 920-page Project 2025, saying, “You ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Here it is.” 

WAYWARD SON: Several news outlets report that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scion of a Democratic family running as an independent for president, plans to quit his campaign tomorrow and endorse Donald Trump. 

 Recent polling has shown Kennedy at about five percent of the vote, pulling support from Trump. This means his endorsement could hurt the chances of Kamala Harris. Kennedy’s following could swing the vote in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin to Trump.

  Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, said in a podcast interview this week that the campaign is considering whether to “join forces” with Trump to prevent the “risk” of Harris winning the election.

  The Kennedy who fought off drug addiction, became an environmentalist, and is now an anti-vaxxer, has taken on a set of politics that exasperates the rest of the Kennedy clan. He opposes military aid to Ukraine but supports Israel’s war in Gaza.  His extended family actually held a press conference earlier this year and said, “don’t vote for him.”

THE WAR ROOM: Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Israeli men protested and clashed with police outside a conscription center in Jerusalem yesterday fighting a court decision allowing them to be drafted into the military. They have been exempt for decades but now the ultra-Orthodox men aged 18 to 26, like other Israeli men and women, are required to perform military duty.

ECON 101: The Labor Department revised its employment figures, suggesting that the labor market is weaker than previously thought. The latest figures say the Labor department overstated job additions by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That’s a downward revision of a significant 28 percent.

  These numbers may figure into the federal Reserve’s decision next month on whether to lower interest rates.

THE SPIN RACK:  A lawyer who represented the far-right Oath Keepers pleaded guilty yesterday to charges related to the January 6^th insurrection. Kellye SoRelle was present with the mob outside the Capitol and later sent messages encouraging other participants to destroy electronic evidence of their involvement in the plot to take over the Capitol. She will be sentenced in January. — A federal jury ordered the City of New Orleans to pay $1 million to a teenage girl who reported a sexual assault and was then sexually assaulted by the investigating officer. Her abuser, former Officer Rodney Vicknair, died in prison earlier this year. — Divers yesterday recovered four bodies from a 183-foot sailing yacht sunk by a waterspout off the coast of Sicily. They found a fifth body but have not recovered it and a sixth victim is still missing. Fifteen people out of 22 on the boat survived. — Nearly two-thirds of supermarket baby foods contain far too much sugar and salt and do not meet World Health Organization standards for advertising and labeling of ingredients, according to a new study published in the journal Nutrients.

BELOW THE FOLD: Democrat delegates attending a breakfast at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago found a little extra protein in their food … maggots.

  The FBI is investigating after several women had been seen entering the hotel around 6:45 a.m. and placing “unknown objects” on the breakfast buffet. One of the attendees fell ill, but it’s unknown whether she became sick after eating maggots or just sick at the thought of it.

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