PAUL RYAN REALLY GOT FACT-CHECKED? CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Are you pleased that last night's Paul Ryan speech was seriously fact-checked by the press? Yeah, me too.

But you know what happens now: The press, in the name of "balance," will feel compelled to go over the major speeches at next week's Democratic convention with an even finer-toothed comb, and will treat any factually debatable points, however trivial or tangential, as major deviations from basic human decency, all in the name of "balance." The press will feel it has to be as tough on Obama and Biden and their main surrogates as it's been on Ryan in the past 24 hours, even if Obama, Biden, et al. say nothing even remotely comparable in terms of dishonesty. And anything the press finds will be brayed about in Romney/Ryan speeches and advertising, and in the right-wing media, for days if not weeks. It'll be what kicks off the fall campaign. But hey, balance above all, right?