US vice-presidential wannabe Paul Ryan speaks in rhetoric and glosses over essential facts, writes Andy Sullivan

Whether whites supported Barack Obama or not, they don’t seem to have lied to pollsters about it.

The election of Barack Obama seems to have demolished the myth of the so-called Bradley effect, whereby white voters with a black candidate say one thing and do another, researchers said today.

The public’s confidence in President George Bush’s job performance and the United States’ direction have slipped in the opening weeks of his second term, particularly among people 50 and older, according to a poll.