An editorial/By Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service

This month President Barack Obama restored authority that was allowed to lapse in the Reagan years that would allow him to reorganize federal agencies to eliminate overlapping and duplicate functions. He brought up the proposal again in his State of the Union address.

Top investors and business leaders gathered at New York's Economic Club seeking assurance from House Speaker John Boehner that his House Republicans would go along with the president and the Democratic-controlled Senate in raising the debt limit.

The local boosters and planners of the Republican convention in St. Paul probably expected -- if not exactly this -- something like it. It must be some kind of Scandinavian gloom thing.

We knew John McCain was superstitious. He carries his lucky coins everywhere. And having a hurricane arrive during your convention on the anniversary week of Katrina might make anybody in his position superstitious. What we didn't know is that he is a high stakes politcal gambler.

The Republicans are gathering in Minneapolis-St. Paul to nominate for president a candidate who by any conventional political wisdom shouldn't be there.And at John McCain's side will be a most unconventional pick as his running mate: Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor, a mother of five and a former sportswriter whose favorite food after snowmobiling is moose stew.

The Democrats, for whom turmoil is a way of life, seem to have pulled off a near flawless convention with excellent primetime speeches by the principles and plenty of feel-good moments, even if they were scripted.