Vice Presidential pick Paul Ryan was put in an awkward position on Thursday when one of the speakers at his own campaign event bragged about getting government funding to help build his business.

Scott Perry is President of the Partnership for Defense Innovation, which recieved $7.5 million in earmarks over three years — under both Presidents Bush and Obama. Perry’s praise for government funding was odd, considering low public opinion of earmarks generally, and the Romney-Ryan campaign’s persistent focus on the fact that people build businesses themselves, not with the help of government.

Still, at Thursday’s event, Perry said, “this building that you are sitting in is an example, a success story, of federal appropriations that worked:”

Fiscal year 2008 and 2009, we put money together to build this facility — not only to build technology for our war fighter, but also to create jobs and generate revenue for the state of North Carolina, and for Fayetteville.

Watch it:

Interestingly, Paul Ryan voted in favor of two of the three earmark bills that gave Perry his funding.

On the campaign trail today, Mitt Romney refused to grant interviews to any reporters who wanted to know about his position on abortion, or about Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), the Senate candidate whose “legitimate rape” comments sparked outrage over the weekend from Democrats and Republicans alike.

One CBS correspondent, Shaun Boyd, explained that only four local reporters got to talk to Romney because of his conditions. “The one stipulation to the interview,” she explained, “was that I not ask him about abortion, or Todd Akin”:

This move signals Romney’s ongoing commitment to dodge any press that might be unflattering, even after his resolution a few weeks ago to be more open to press appearances.

It also echoes the restrictions that Sarah Palin set on interviews during her vice presidential bid in 2008.

As Republicans continue to pile on Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) for saying victims of “legitimate rape” can’t get pregnant, Mike Huckabee has strengthened his support for the embattled Senate candidate. Huckabee first gave Akin the opportunity to defend the remark on his radio show, which he did by explaining that women often lie about being raped. Huckabee also approvingly read a defense of Akin by junk scientist Dr. John Wilke, though he conceded that some “extraordinary” people were born out of rape.

To make his support for Akin crystal clear, Huckabee sent a letter to his supporters Thursday accusing the GOP establishment of trying to bully Akin out of the race for an honest mistake:

The Party’s leaders have for reasons that aren’t rational, left [Akin] behind on the political battlefield, wounded and bleeding, a casualty of his self-inflicted, but not intentional wound. In a Party that supposedly stands for life, it was tragic to see the carefully orchestrated and systematic attack on a fellow Republican. Not for a moral failure or corruption or a criminal act, but for a misstatement which he contritely and utterly repudiated. I was shocked by GOP leaders and elected officials who rushed so quickly to end the political life of a candidate over a mistaken comment in an interview. This was a serious mistake, but it was blown out of proportion not by the left, but by Akin’s own Republican Party. Is this what the party really thinks of principled pro-life advocates? Do we forgive and forget the verbal gaffes of Republicans who are “conveniently pro-life” for political advantage, but crucify one who truly believes that every life is sacred?

Huckabee also claims the National Republican Senatorial Committee launched an organized crusade to get Akin out of the race, ordering political consultants to stay away and rallying clergy to encourage Akin to drop out. While Huckabee does not specify which “conveniently pro-life” Republicans he is referring to, he does astutely call out the political posturing of the many Republicans who have disavowed Akin even though they support his policy positions.

Akin, meanwhile, says he has raised more than $100,000 online after his comments. Though Huckabee is now putting himself at odds with the party establishment by defending Akin, he will be speaking at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Monday.

Mitt Romney’s new energy plan amounts to “drill, baby drill” on America’s public lands and shores. His vision for energy follows that of his oil donors and chief energy adviser, shale oil baron Harold Hamm. Meanwhile, it neglects other sources of American energy, especially the growing wind and solar industries: The League of Conservation Voters counted Romney’s plan includes 154 mentions of oil, but just 24 mentions of wind and solar, 9 of them negative.

On Thursday, appearing on Morning Joe, billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens criticized Romney’s sharp focus on an oil-above-all strategy, at a time when the industry has never been better:

They missed the mark. All they talk about is oil. Oil, drill off the East Coast, West Coast, federal lands, everything [...] But our industry, in America, has done a fabulous job. I mean, we’re number three in the world on oil production: Saudi Arabia, Russia, United States. And here we are, our industry’s has done a fabulous job. And they don’t mention natural gas, in the whole release, it’s all about oil.

Watch the video:

Pickens, unhappy the Romney camp overlooks the country’s natural gas boom, pointed out that the oil industry is doing very well for itself. In 2011, five oil companies alone netted a record-breaking $137 billion profit. This year, domestic oil production reached its highest level in eight years, and imports have fallen to under 50 percent.

Romney’s single-minded focus on oil highlights his ties to oil billionaires like the Koch brothers, who are personally spending over $60 million on Romney’s behalf. Pickens, who has fueded with the Kochs before, called Koch Industries the “biggest deterrent to an energy plan in America.” The plan could deliver huge benefits to Hamm too, who is Romney’s chief energy adviser, his major super PAC donor, and worth billions from drilling in North Dakota.