Your Labor Day cheat sheet to the candidates' stories

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/09/your-labor-day-.html

What was the most important Labor Day weekends news about some of the leading presidential candidates? Here are the leads from a sample of Associated Press reports and one from our Gannett colleagues at the Des Moines Register:

• Republican Mitt Romney "in an interview Monday dismissed concerns he's too nice to be a viable candidate in a vicious race, proving it by taking a swipe at GOP rival Fred Thompson. 'We all get the chance to go on the talk shows. But it's not the sort of questions you get in the debates or the town meetings that I've had,' Romney said in an Associated Press interview, alluding to Thompson's planned appearance Wednesday on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Thompson is to officially enter the race Thursday.

• Democratic Sen. Barack Obama "Sharpened his critique of lead rival (Sen.) Hillary Rodham Clinton, warning against a return to 'divisive, special interest politics' that had demoralized the country even before President Bush took office. 'As bad as this administration has been, it's going to take more than just a change in parties to truly turn this country around,' Obama told supporters at a Labor Day rally. 'George Bush and Dick Cheney may have turned divisive, special interest politics into an art form, but it was there before they got to Washington. If you and I don't stand up to challenge it, it will be there long after we leave.' "

• Republican Sen. John McCain "said Monday that while war is tragic, the fight for freedom is an honor veterans share and understand. 'Most veterans know, war is an experience we would not trade,' he said during an unveiling ceremony for a veterans monument in Neola (Iowa). 'We might be proud to have overcome the paralysis of terror ... to sacrifice for something greater than ourselves.' "

• In Pittsburgh, Democrat John Edwards "won the endorsement of the United Steelworkers and the United Mine Workers of America as more than 1,000 union members cheered the Democratic presidential candidate. 'America was not built on Wall Street. America was built by steelworkers and mine workers,' Edwards told supporters at a downtown Labor Day rally and parade."

• Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "courted labor activists with a sharply populist theme, making the argument that the party must focus on results, not rhetoric, and that she's the candidate best able to change the nation's course. Drawing a clear distinction with her Democratic rivals, the New York senator brought her former president husband along for a Labor Day swing underscoring her experience. 'Change is just a word if you don't have the strength and experience to make it happen,' Clinton said. 'I bring 35 years of experience to make the changes I think we need to make in America.' "

(Photos: Both Romney and Obama took part in the Labor Day parade in Milford, N.H. Romney photo by Darren McCollester of Getty Images. Obama photo by Jim Cole of the AP.)