Governor, Are You Packing Heat?

POLITICO's Ben Smith reported this lovely gem: Texas Gov. Rick Perry is a leading advocate of gun rights who likes to boast of having dispatched a coyote on a recent jog, so I asked him during today's walking press conference at the Iowa State Fair whether he was armed. "I never comment on whether I'm carrying a handgun or not," he said. "That's why it's called concealed." Smith observed that if he was armed, he could have found himself in hot water with the state police over a ban at the fair that has rankled some local gun groups. As Slate reported, Perry "does seem to carry guns in unexpected places. He shot a coyote while jogging in 2010, for example." Mercy. This is getting better and better.