I've read several items lamenting the lack of specific proposals from both presidential candidates, but I think that is a bit misleading and disconnected from Washington reality.
As long as the Republicans maintain control of the House, and the Tea Party keeps its stranglehold on the Republican party, a likely reality which I haven't seen anybody seriously question, that is where the agenda is going to be set.
We can either elect a President who will do battle with these monomaniacs, or we can elect one who is indebted to them for his existence, and who hasn't shown much backbone throughout the umpteen years he's been campaigning, someone who appears to believe in nothing quite so much as the fact that he thinks he should be President.
We can expect Obama to continue to support programs like the American Jobs Act of 2011, and we can expect the House to continue to make sure those programs go nowhere.
A few days ago the Senate passed a Democratic-sponsored Veterans Job Bill 95-1, which everyone knows is going to go to the House and die. As long as the Republicans keep control of the House, that bill has no future.
I'm hesitant to speculate about motive but, sadly, I can't help but believe that the Senate Republicans who voted for the bill probably did so only in order to prevent the charge that they were against providing help veterans, which they could safely do in the full knowledge and approval that the bill would never get out of the House. So they could cover their asses without the risk that Obama and/or the Democratic Party would get credit for anything. I know; I'm so unfair.
The one vote against the Veterans Job Bill was cast by Rand Paul. He tied his support for the bill to the cut off of all financial aid to Pakistan until they release the doctor who helped in the capture of bin Laden. What the fuck?! In the words of that punter from the Vikings, "Holy fucking shitballs," that's goofy.
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