Labor Day marked the official beginning of the campaign season and the Robeson County Republican Party election headquarters is located at 1903 N. Pine St. in Lumberton. Volunteers are projecting September operation hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Saturdays the hours are noon to 4 p.m. Trump signs are in short supply everywhere and more have been ordered.

Hillary’s health has suddenly become an issue. This is in light of her suddenly leaving a 9/11 memorial service recently.

When Reagan was shot during his presidency, he quipped to the emergency room staff that he hoped they were Republican. The doctor replied that on that day, they were all Republican. Health issues supersede politics.

So no one wants her unhealthy. But it’s clear her campaign is deceptive as they now claim she’s had pneumonia since last week. Which still doesn’t fully explain her health issues.

Republican operatives previously dismissed conspiracy theories about her health. It didn’t seem fair to bring it up. Now it’s an issue.

Operatives did think it was odd she limits public appearances. It was written off to strategy because of her low likeability rating. She said her coughing spells were allergies. Now that has changed to pneumonia.

She’s laughed off frequent falls as clumsy.

To say it was anything more seemed conspiratorial. But it seems less conspiratorial this past weekend. Hillary leaves the 9/11 memorial unexpectedly. Video of her waiting on a Secret Service van is unnerving. She is propped up against a column. She clearly doesn’t acknowledge her vehicle when it arrives and doesn’t step toward it. Her aides help her but her legs do not respond. She is not completely conscious. She falls toward the vehicle, losing a shoe. They then physically load her into the vehicle.

Rather than going to a hospital, she goes to Chelsea’s apartment. Emerging later she appears fine and the campaign issues a statement that she simply got too hot. Later the story changes to pneumonia. Now the heat wave in New York had already passed with temperatures in the low 80s with a cool breeze blowing. Humidity was only 31 percent.

Experts immediately began connecting the dots. Is it just pneumonia or something more sinister like Parkinson’s?

Pneumonia doesn’t explain frequent falls that have been public. She’s injured her elbow, suffered a concussion and fell at a campaign event. This isn’t her first fainting spell.

On the political side, be careful before anyone hopes the Democratic Party replaces her before the election. That can be done and it would probably be Biden. Her negatives are worse than his, so be careful what you wish for. She may actually be easier to beat than would Biden.

The point is concern for her health. The concern for the nation is if she is hiding something like advanced Parkinson’s or another illness, who acts on her behalf?

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suffered an incapacitating stroke. The nation later learned the first lady actually ran the country while he recovered as they kept it secret. So keeping health secrets from the nation is not new.

Huma Abedin is Hillary’s closest aide. Bill sometimes must go through Abedin to talk to Hillary as Abedin sometimes keeps Hillary’s cell phone. Abedin has been a controversial aide and that’s another unnerving story.

So for now, her campaign continues to spin. Her health is now overshadowing her calling half of Trump’s supporters deplorable and the other half essentially stupid. That’s half the country. Romney never recovered from privately disparaging 47 percent of the country. Hillary publicly disparages half.

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Phillip Stephens is chairman of the Robeson County Republican Party.