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During a national election year, political wisdom has it that the Labor Day weekend signals the "start" of the intense political season. But considering the presidential campaign has been in full swing for more than two years now, that seems more euphemism than wisdom.

After dodging a nasty tropical weather system, the Republicans conducted a successful national political convention in which they formally nominated candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for president and vice president.

Now it is the Democrats' turn this week to formally renominate President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. We are certain that it will also be well-orchestrated.

Once that formality is out of the way, the campaigns will commence attacking each other in earnest. It is difficult to conceive how that can get much worse, but experience tells us it will.

It is an ugly truth, but, again, experience tells us -- and certainly the candidates and their handlers know this -- that negative, deceptive campaigning works. And it works well.

That is a shame because this election could well be pivotal in our nation's history. We have some very serious issues to talk about. Issues that are complex and that do not have answers that fit on a bumper sticker or even in a 60-second attack advertisement.

Many of those issues are economic, and the manner in which we proceed on them can affect generations to come. We need to have a rational

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discussion about Social Security and, certainly, about Medicare. For the past half-century, these two programs have been bedrock promises made by the government to the people. But it is clear some adjustments must be made in both programs.

Each ticket needs to articulate a cogent plan for making such adjustments. More important, they need to steer away from hyperbolic nonsense such as "throwing granny over the cliff" or "implementing death panels."

Of course, jobs will be one of the central issues. Unemployment is far too high and the economy is limping along. But rather than vague platitudes, we would like to hear about the candidates' specific plans to create jobs.

While most economic indicators are not doing well, the Dow continues to climb. We would like to hear each candidate's specific plans for encouraging businesses to reinvest the cash some have been holding. What steps should be taken to offer businesses the confidence they need to reinvest in the economy?

Certainly, there are many others including health care, the war and dealing with a nuclear Iran.

The thing that confounds us is that, given the dramatically different views of the world offered by the parties this time, one would think each would want to spend its time and money advancing a particular vision rather than slamming the other guy.

Yes, we understand such tactics help win elections. But there is more at stake here than which side is able to muster the slickest misdirection. We ask both presidential candidates to do the country a grand service and talk about their plans and not the other guy's shortcomings.

Ah well, we can dream.