Unemployment figures were unimproved the day after the Democratic convention, and Mitt Romney and the media reacted as if that might make a difference in the election. The election on Nov. 6 should have nothing to do with the way things are today. What matters is how things will be two years from now, in 2014.
That's why both Obama and Romney are shut-mouthed about specific plans. Obama refuses to promise anything because he has learned in the last three years that an obstructionist Congress will shut it down. Romney refuses to promise anything because he has to keep both moderates and extremists in the Republican camp until Nov. 6.
Those are just convenient cover stories. Barack's girls, Malia and Sasha, and Mitt's five sons (you can Google their names), have said to them: "Dad, let me tell you about algorithms." Thus both candidates are aware that specific plans can be fed into algorithms, which will spew out 2014 scenarios, showing where the economy will be, in 2014, based on specific plans the candidates won't discuss today.
Obama realizes that, to get anything done in the next term, he will have to end-run the McConnell House anyway, and there's no sense giving them a heads-up. Romney realizes he can't utter a word about any plan that, in its 2014 incarnation, would infuriate the Limbaugh Republicans, or offend the moderates to the extent they would turn toward Obama before Nov. 6.
So America's future, in 2014, is frozen by what Republicans might do, which is exactly why America's present is frozen in 2012. Through my own children, in their 30s, I am hearing from a lot of young people who want to cast an informed vote. I don't know how to advise them, except expect to vote for the man, not the plan, and hope for the best. That's not a very encouraging way for the young people of this country to vote for their future. On Facebook, therefore, today I started encouraging them to start an "Occupy the Vote" movement.
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