SHOULD A GUY WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOR BE DOING IMPROV?:

During long hours on Air Force One, Mr. Obama sets himself up in the conference room as aides wander in and out. He reads briefing books; receives updates; checks in with his chief of staff, Jacob J. Lew, back at the White House; and flips through The New Yorker or Sports Illustrated. The television is often tuned to ESPN with the sound down.

His messages have an improvisational feel at times. On the flight to Colorado last week, Jay Carney, his press secretary, read him an online column concluding that he has presided over slower growth in federal spending than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Mr. Obama liked it so much he inserted it into his campaign speech.

Just like that, an online column, rather than a detailed study by a budget office, became fodder for his argument. "Since I've been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years," he told supporters in a hotel ballroom in Denver. What he did not say is that the calculation did not count significant spending in his early months in office and assumed future cuts that he opposes.

The crowd of 550, fewer than the 700 expected, was obviously glad to see him, though the room at times felt a little flat and Mr. Obama a little tired. The audience laughed at his implicit gibes at Mr. Romney's wealth, like when he applauded Mr. Romney's "personal success" and when he prefaced a sentence by referring to "those of us who've spent time in the real world."

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