Is there a word for nostalgia for something that you do not really know? There hasn’t been any drama at a convention (assuming you don’t count aged Hollywood stars talking to chairs as drama) for 35 years, and the outcome of one hasn’t seriously been in doubt for probably 60, meaning that practically none of the scribblers in the press riser have living memory of the kind of conventions that this year’s are a mere pale imitation of.

Still, in the hopes of catching some of that old-time spirit, and as a palette-cleanser from Ann Romney’s attempts to “humanize” (a word that has leapt into the political argot without proper vetting) her husband, and as a break from the convention’s livestream, which had taken on a predictable rhythm of scathing, over the top attack, followed by wild cheer, followed by moment of silence for the victims of the apparently incoming hurricane—press repeat—The Observer ventured out into the surprisingly empty late summer street and into Times Square for one of the final matinee performances of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man.

The play has been running on Broadway to mixed reviews since April. The run ends this week. Mr. Vidal’s death last month, at age 82, adds a special poignancy to it. The play takes place on the eve of a 1960 convention in Philadelphia. William Russell, a former secretary of state (played  by John Larroquette), has a lead in the delegate count. He is much like Mr. Vidal—who tried his hand at politics himself, twice running for Congress, but found, as Russell does, that there is little room for erudition and eloquence out on the hustings. He is challenged by the young upstart, Senator Joseph Cantwell (John Stamos). The senator is the kind of figure who is perhaps unique to politics—overwhelmed by ambition, shrewdly calculating, charismatic without being intelligent, teetotaling, oversexed—think John Edwards crossed with Anthony Weiner crossed with Paul Ryan. Cantwell is coming on strong, late, and the matter seems itrephrase? will be decided by Arthur Hockstader, an avuncular former president (James Earl Jones), whose endorsement still carries enough weight to sway blocs of delegates, and who despite, or because of, Russell’s role as a former aide, is genuinely torn.

The action turns venial in the way we expect all politicians to behave when no one is looking. Cantwell happily admits that he is uninformed, and willing to etch-a-sketch his positions away to/a bit awk whatever is most popular at the moment. He happily pilfers a report from Russell’s former shrink that reveals that the secretary of state’s sidelining for a mysterious “exhaustion” diagnosis was really a nervous breakdown, and prepares to distribute it to the delegates. When Russell discovers evidence that Cantwell was discharged from the Army for being what, as Hockstader delicately puts it, “when I was a boy, we called a degenerate?”

“You know how it is sometimes when there’s all those men together,” says the campaign’s mole. “We had some nurses later on, but not enough to make much difference. I mean there were all these men.”

Hockstader encourages Russell to go through  with it, and hints that a pol worthy of his endorsement would already have done so. Hockstader too is a figure unique to politics. A revered figure in the country, we are led to believe, who brandishes more than a hint of Bill Clinton’s Bubba-esque rapscallion charm, he paints himself as someone solemnly concerned about the state of the country, or the state of his political party, as he drops in on Russell and Cantwell. Really, what he wants is his ring to be kissed. It is a scene reminiscent of those Democratic bigwigs who are politely declining to donate to Barack Obama this year because he has not been as obsequious as they expect those who receive their checks to be.

The central drama then centers around whether or not Russell will use his own bit of oppo research to stave off Cantwelll’s attempt to smear him with his psychiatric history. As audience members, we are meant to look on this display with nostalgia How quaint it all seems: There is one news anchor narrating the action, not 17 talking heads on cable shouting over one another. The boundaries of privacy surrounding candidates and their spouses are largely protected. The candidates and their wives smoke and drink and wander the secret passageways of an elegant Philadelphia hotel. This, at last, is the drama and intrigue we yearn for from the conventions, where party pooh-bahs control large swaths of delegates, the vote-counting lasts deep into the night and one well-wrought speech can at any moment send the whole show into chaos.

But instead it is impossible not to look at The Best Man and the shows in Tampa and Charlotte and come away with the conclusion that little has changed in politics over the last half-century. Even in the golden era of Camelot eloquence, politicians were stupid and venal. Handlers kept unscripted moments to a minimum. Pols kept an eye on polls, but denied it. Even in the pre-cable era, appearances mattered, and erudition was considered a handicap.

“You see, the women like a regular kind of man, like General Eisenhower. Now he really appeals to the women,” advises one party big wig to Russell, who, by the look of shock on his faces makes clear he has no intention of imitating Ike. “That nice smile. He has such a way with him…he inspires confidence because he doesn’t seem like anything but just folks. You could imagine him washing up after dinner, listening to his wife’s view on important matters.”

Russell is the moral hero of this tale, the Vidalian alter-ego. His high-mindedness is long gone from the stage—replaced, if at all, by the call every election season to change the culture of Washington, a promise that still has some life despite the lack of any evidence that Washington, or human nature, will ever change—and it is not much missed.

As Russel puts it, “I don’t believe in polls. Accurate or not. And if I may bore you with one of my little sermons: Life is not a popularity contest; neither is politics. The important thing for any government is educating the people about issues, not following the up and downs of popular opinion.

Yech. If the golden era included such pious sermonizing, then good riddance. This is a lesson that Democrats in particular never seem to quite grasp—that voters aren’t electing a policymaker-in-chief but rather what the NYU social scientist Jonathan Haidt calls “the high priest of America’s civil religion,” a description that becomes truer every day as the president grows more ubiquitous on television and internet screens. Russell, and the rest of us lamenters over the current coarsening of the discourse, yearn for a sober purity that was never quite there. Is the public really not entitled to know that their high priest had a nervous breakdown, or was court martialed? Are we better off when our presidents quote Bertrand Russell?

Surely not. If Russel represents the golden past, and Cantwell the fallen present, then gratefully, we are living in a Cantwellian era.  Better our pols be strivers with moxie than above the fray, and better too our conventions be little more than extended advertisements and the winner get decided by the voters rather than by negotiation and the corralling of allegiances.

There are of course, many many things wrong with our politics. And in the end, The Best Man doesn’t really speak to them: The rise of money. The decline of the distinction between truth and fiction. But that campaigns, and convention are all glitz, that politicians personal lives are out in the open, and that hardball tactics have a way of winning out, are neither that much of a blight on the body poltic, nor that much of a recent invention.

Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.

I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility.

Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud – my friend and America’s next Vice President, Paul Ryan.

In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan – a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands.

I love the way he lights up around his kids and how he's not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.

But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours.

Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us.

When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have – optimistic and positive and confident in the future.

That very optimism is uniquely American.

It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better.

They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world but for the richness of this life.

Freedom.

Freedom of religion.

Freedom to speak their mind.

Freedom to build a life.

And yes, freedom to build a business.  With their own hands.

This is the essence of the American experience.

We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.

When every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just ninety miles from Castro’s tyranny, these new Americans surely had many questions. But none doubted that here in America they could build a better life, that in America their children would be more blessed than they.

But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future.

It is not what we were promised.

Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for their elderly mom who’s living alone now or give a little more to their church or charity.

Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team.

Every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job by now, a place of their own, and that they could start paying back some of their loans and build for the future.

This is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits.

This was the hope and change America voted for.

It’s not just what we wanted. It’s not just what we expected.

It’s what Americans deserved.

You deserved it because during these years, you worked harder than ever before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid $22.50 an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at 9 bucks an hour and fewer benefits. You did it because your family depended on you. You did it because you’re an American and you don’t quit. You did it because it was what you had to do.

But driving home late from that second job, or standing there watching the gas pump hit 50 dollars and still going, when the realtor told you that to sell your house you’d have to take a big loss, in those moments you knew that this just wasn’t right.

But what could you do? Except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic. Hug your kids a little longer; maybe spend a little more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day.

I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division.  This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we CAN do something. With your help we will do something.

Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, “I’m an American. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My family deserves better. My country deserves better!”

So here we stand. Americans have a choice. A decision.

To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country.

I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a classic baby boomer.  It was a time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work. To be an American was to assume that all things were possible.  When President Kennedy challenged Americans to go to the moon, the question wasn’t whether we'd get there, it was only when we'd get there.

The soles of Neil Armstrong's boots on the moon made permanent impressions on OUR souls and in our national psyche. Ann and I watched those steps together on her parent's sofa. Like all Americans we went to bed that night knowing we lived in the greatest country in the history of the world.

God bless Neil Armstrong.

Tonight that American flag is still there on the moon. And I don't doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong's spirit is still with us: that unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.

That's how I was brought up.

My dad had been born in Mexico and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the US Government as war refugees. My dad never made it through college and apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. And he had big dreams. He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to marry him. He moved to Detroit, led a great automobile company and became Governor of the Great State of Michigan.

We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed unusual or out of place but I really don’t remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.

My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all – the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would BE, and much less about what we would DO.

Unconditional love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to pass on to our sons and now to our grandchildren.  All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers. If every child could drift to sleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family – and God’s love -- this world would be a far more gentle and better place.

Mom and Dad were married 64 years. And if you wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist – because every day Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That's how she found out what happened on the day my father died – she went looking for him because that morning, there was no rose.

My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, “Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation?”

I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

As Governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman Lt. Governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies.

I grew up in Detroit in love with cars and wanted to be a car guy, like my dad. But by the time I was out of school, I realized that I had to go out on my own, that if I stayed around Michigan in the same business, I’d never really know if I was getting a break because of my dad. I wanted to go someplace new and prove myself.

Those weren’t the easiest of days – too many long hours and weekends working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night. But if you ask Ann and I what we’d give, to break up just one more fight between the boys, or wake up in the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room. Well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that.

Those days were toughest on Ann, of course. She was heroic. Five boys, with our families a long way away. I had to travel a lot for my job then and I’d call and try to offer support. But every mom knows that doesn't help get the homework done or the kids out the door to school.

I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine. And I knew without question, that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. And as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to.

Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to the community it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved to town or just joined our church. We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregants from all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways.

And that’s how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad. It is both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. The strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families, our faiths.

That is the bedrock of what makes America, America. In our best days, we can feel the vibrancy of America’s communities, large and small.

It’s when we see that new business opening up downtown. It’s when we go to work in the morning and see everybody else on our block doing the same.

It’s when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job offer they should take….and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like is not far from home.

It’s that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach your kid’s soccer team, or help out on school trips.

But for too many Americans, these good days are harder to come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?

Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple question:  If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.

The President hasn’t disappointed you because he wanted to. The President has disappointed America because he hasn’t led America in the right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government.

I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience.

When I was 37, I helped start a small company. My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses.

So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on ourselves and on our advice.

So we started a new business called Bain Capital. The only problem was, while WE believed in ourselves, nobody else did. We were young and had never done this before and we almost didn’t get off the ground. In those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a really big mistake. I had thought about asking my church’s pension fund to invest, but I didn't. I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors’ money, but I didn’t want to go to hell too. Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the Episcopal Church pension fund to invest. Today there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.

That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know.  An office supply company called Staples – where I'm pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping; The Sports Authority, which became a favorite of my sons. We started an early childhood learning center called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly praised. At a time when nobody thought we'd ever see a new steel mill built in America, we took a chance and built one in a corn field in Indiana. Today Steel Dynamics is one of the largest steel producers in the United States.

These are American success stories. And yet the centerpiece of the President’s entire re-election campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression? In America, we celebrate success, we don't apologize for it.

We weren’t always successful at Bain.  But no one ever is in the real world of business.

That’s what this President doesn’t seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. It is about dreams. Usually, it doesn't work out exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was fired at Apple. He came back and changed the world.

It’s the genius of the American free enterprise system – to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow’s prosperity rather than trying to redistribute today's.

That is why every president since the Great Depression who came before the American people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction: "you are better off today than you were four years ago."

Except Jimmy Carter. And except this president.

This president can ask us to be patient.

This president can tell us it was someone else’s fault.

This president can tell us that the next four years he’ll get it right.

But this president cannot tell us that YOU are better off today than when he took office.

America has been patient. Americans have supported this president in good faith.

But today, the time has come to turn the page.

Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us.

To put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations.

To forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be.

Now is the time to restore the Promise of America. Many Americans have given up on this president but they haven’t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.

What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. It doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America needs.

What America needs is jobs.

Lots of jobs.

In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled.  Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before. Nearly one out of six Americans is living in poverty. Look around you. These are not strangers. These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans.

His policies have not helped create jobs, they have depressed them. And this I can tell you about where President Obama would take America:

His plan to raise taxes on small business won't add jobs, it will eliminate them;

His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China;

His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk;

His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today's seniors, and depress innovation – and jobs – in medicine.

And his trillion-dollar deficits will slow our economy, restrain employment, and cause wages to stall.

To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right.

I am running for president to help create a better future. A future where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon.

And unlike the President, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has 5 steps.

First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.

Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance.

Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences.

Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.

And fifth, we will champion SMALL businesses, America’s engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare.

Today, women are more likely than men to start a business. They need a president who respects and understands what they do.

And let me make this very clear – unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class.

As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America's first liberty: the freedom of religion.

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise...is to help you and your family.

I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.

Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat.

In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran. We're still talking, and Iran’s centrifuges are still spinning.

President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro's Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia's President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.

We will honor America’s democratic ideals because a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of Truman and Reagan. And under my presidency we will return to it once again.

You might have asked yourself if these last years are really the America we want, the America won for us by the greatest generation.

Does the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China? No.

Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college? No.

Are its schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? No.

And does the America we want succumb to resentment and division? We know the answer.

The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.

Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America.

That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and mother's confidence that their children's future is brighter even than the past.

That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.

That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our Creator, and codified in our Constitution.

That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need.

That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children.

If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.

"ALEC spends thousands of corporate dollars a year to advocate for and against legislation," said Mr. Squadron. "Legislators who are part of ALEC can call it what they want. But undisclosed lobbying by any other name still stinks. That's why I'm urging my colleagues in New York and around the country to take the pledge to disclose if ALEC helps shape their bills."

ALEC, short for American Legislative Exchange Council, has become a recent target of much criticism of Democrats. The Center for Media and Democracy, in a recent expose, revealed that the group is a "front group" in which "corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line."

As Mr. Squadron's office notes, ALEC's activities seem to qualify as lobbying, but it is not registered as a lobby in New York and doesn't file the required disclosures. Mr. Squadron’s efforts comes with a petition in which he urges state legislators and candidates for state legislature around the country to pledge to do the disclosing for ALEC and make clear whether the group is involved with the drafting of their bills.

Mr. Squadron is also a candidate for public advocate, and in many ways he is following the path of the current public advocate, Bill de Blasio, who made national campaign finance reform a centerpiece of his tenure in the city's second highest ranking job.

The rest of Mr. Squadron's release is below:

"California made the bad choice by going with an old retread," he told the crowd, adding,  “Let me tell you this – I cannot believe you people elected Jerry Brown over Meg Whitman. … Jerry Brown. Jerry Brown? I mean, he won the New Jersey presidential primary over Jimmy Carter when I was 14 years old.”

Mr. Christie then went on to mock Mr. Brown for telling him that he didn't want to raise taxes, and so instead would put an initiative to raise  income and sales taxes on the November ballot. 

"Man, that's leadership, isn’t it?” Mr. Christie said.

But Mr. Christie isn't afraid to lean on ballot initiatives himself when trying to avoid his own messy political situations.

Earlier this year, the legislature in New Jersey voted to legalize same-sex marriage. The governor vetoed the bill--not necessarily because he was opposed to the practice (although he is)--but because he thinks it is far too important of an issue to be taken out of the hands of the voters. Instead, he told LGBT advocates to gather the necessary signatures to put it on the ballot:

"I think this is not an issue that should rest solely in my hands, or the hands of the Senate President or the Speaker or the other 118 members of the Legislature," he said. "Let's let the people of New Jersey decide what is right for the state."

Christie made the announcement after a town hall in Bridgewater as the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the issue in Trenton.

"Let's make sure that political maneuvering is not what judges this and let's make sure this is not someone just trying to have fun and create a campaign issue," he said. "The institution of marriage if too serious to be treated like a political football."

So far, they have failed to take him up on it, and unlike Mr. Brown's tax measure, marriage equality continues to languish in New Jersey.

Mr. Christie is quite the center of attention at the RNC this year, as he is slated to give the keynote address later in the week, an address in which he is expected to tear apart Barack Obama's economic record.

“Let’s not get distracted by the myriad of issues that will be brought to the forefront at the upcoming political conventions, the single most important election issue is getting our economy back on track,” said Thomas L. Leto III, President and Founder of the U.S. Medical Marijuana Chamber of Commerce. “The Economic Potential of the Cannabis Business in the U.S. is Limitless and President Obama understands this. It is our impression that Mr. Romney just doesn’t get it.”

The United States Medical Marijuana Chamber of Commerce boasts of a 10,000 strong membership list, with they say, a number of individual state chapters across the country

Mr. Leto said that medical marijuana industry has the potential to become a $100 billion annual industry and would create 5 million new jobs within the first year if legalization passed Congress.  Federal legalization would allow transportation of marijuana across state lines he added, making easier for businesses to operate.  Under current law, the federal government has delegated legalization of the drug to the state level where local legislatures decide how medical marijuana businesses operate.

The endorsement is something of an odd one: Mr. Obama has led a crackdown on medical marijuana far beyond what George W. Bush attempted. In 2008 he had said that it was something that would be left  better to states and municipalities to come up with their own solutions. He explained this discrepancy in a Rolling Stone interview:

What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana," Obama said. "I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana -- and the reason is, because it's against federal law

"I can't nullify congressional law. I can't ask the Justice Department to say, 'Ignore completely a federal law that's on the books.' What I can say is, 'Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.' As a consequence, there haven't been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes.

Currently Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington have legalized cannabis for medical use.

Political reporter Shaun Boyd of CBS4 told an anchor, "The one stipulation to the interview was that I not ask him about abortion or Todd Akin—he’s the Missouri Republican who created a firestorm after saying women's bodies shut down in a legitimate rape to prevent pregnancy. I did ask him about health care, the female vote and energy.”

This created a predictably mocking response from the Obama campaign:

It’s no surprise why. On Tuesday, the Republican Party's Platform officially endorsed the Akin amendment, which would ban abortion for all women, including rape victims, and Paul Ryan has struggled to explain his support for redefining rape. Mitt Romney’s campaign might be able to muzzle reporters from asking tough questions, but women across America deserve to know the truth about Romney-Ryan’s extreme agenda.

Video of the exchange is below, and a clip of the full interview--minus Akin and abortion questions--can be found here.

A Romney campaign source emails to say that there seems to have been some kind of misunderstanding.:

"This is not how we operate.  The matter is being addressed."

That seems to be the case in Missouri, where incumbent Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill has opened up a 10 point lead over her challenger, Congressman Todd Akin in the latest Rasmussen poll. Mr. Akin, of course, burst onto the political scene earlier this week when, during an otherwise routine local TV interview, he stated his objection to abortion even in cases of rape.

“It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said about the chances of getting pregnant due to rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something: I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be of the rapist, and not attacking the child."

The poll released today was taken yesterday, and it gives Ms. McCaskill 48 percent, and Mr. Akin just 38 percent, among 500 likely Missouri voters. Nine percent said they preferred another candidate, and 5 percent counted themselves as undecided.

A previous Rasmussen poll, from July 30--before Mr. Akin won the GOP primary in an upset--gave him a three-point lead over Ms. McCaskill.

Republicans had counted on Mr. Akin's ousting Ms. McCaskill as crucial to their hopes of taking back the Senate. Her approval ratings have consistently been under 50 percent, but even before Mr. Akin started spouting his theories about female biology, he remained the Republican she fared best against.

Republicans around the country have been hoping that a string of low poll numbers, plus a drying up of the money--as many conservative groups have pledged--convinces Mr. Akin to get out of the race.

Presented without further comment [Skip to 1:40 or so]:

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