For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis, the election, and more, subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.





Here’s the latest from Romneyland:

Since the announcement of Ryan as Romney’s vice-presidential pick, the Republican challenger has faced persistent questioning over where he stands. The Romney team has been left vulnerable, in part because it has been sending out mixed messages. Romney, in a rare press conference on Monday night in Florida, repeatedly refused to say whether he backed Ryan’s Medicare reform plan. Some of advisers have gone on television to say publicly that he wholly and enthusiastically endorsed Ryan’s budget proposals and would, if president, have signed it. Others have sought to distance him from it, saying Romney was running on his own plan.

Seriously? Romney picked Paul Ryan as his VP on August 1st, and two weeks later his team still wasn’t prepared for a barrage of questions about whether their guy supports Ryan’s budget roadmap and his Medicare plan? Even though that’s the single most important policy initiative he’s associated with?

Who the hell is running this operation? This is a clown show of epic proportions.