As good as it gets?

Federal spending is out of control under the Obama administration. The health care individual mandate is socialist. President George W. Bush presided over the slowest job growth in half a century.

None of these statements — by Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, conservative pundits, and President Barack Obama respectively — stands up to scrutiny.

Covering political conventions

America’s national political conventions are actually two big productions presented simultaneously for two quite different but interrelated audiences – the convention-goers and the mass audience reached through the media.

First, there are thousands of convention delegates, alternates, media people and camp followers inside whatever big arena the national parties have chosen to host their conventions. It is critically important to keep all parties occupied, entertained and happily participating in the proceedings of the convention as they are the most immediate object of the events on the platform and they provide the backdrop for whatever drama may be playing out behind the scenes.

The unasked question in the Akin brouhaha

The nation’s political blogosphere has been in an uproar the past few days over comments made by U.S. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), a GOP conservative running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Claire McCaskill.

Akin ignited a firestorm in the “Show Me State” – and across the country – when he said “legitimate rape” almost never leads to pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.” His comments, carried by St. Louis television station KTVI in its “Jaco Report” Aug. 19, drew swift, sharp rebukes from Democrats and Republicans from coast to coast.