An editorial / Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service

Congressional hearings into the Gulf oil spill show that a series of foreseeable and preventable events led up to the explosion and fire that killed 11 people, destroyed a huge drilling rig and led to an uncontrollable discharge of pollutants.

So the four candidates for president and vice president set out on the campaign trail, and only one of them (Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware) is a conventional politician.

The fact that President Bush chose to address the Republican convention in St. Paul by live remote from the White House speaks volumes about relations between the two. The party was visibly relieved when he felt obliged to cancel his scheduled appearance in the hall, but the president, thanks to Air Force One, could have shown in person another night.

In the United States each year there are 4,000 unexpected and -- until now -- unexplained infant deaths.