I visited Gov. Paul LePage in June, and our conversation drifted to a subject that was very much on the governor’s mind: our state’s educational deficiencies.

At the outset of his recent foreign trip, Mitt Romney committed a gaffe. In answer to a question about the Olympics, he expressed skepticism about London’s preparations.

Of all the spinning plates — the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the sequester and more — the one that could have been really disruptive before Election Day was handled successfully Tuesday: John Boehner, Harry Reid and Barack Obama all agreed to a six-month spending bill that continues current levels, pushing off all other decisions on spending until the next Congress.

Shortly after 9/11, President George W. Bush received from Prime Minister Tony Blair a bust of Winston Churchill as an expression of British-American solidarity. Bush gave it pride of place in the Oval Office.