This week started optimistically, with the hope that Paul Ryan's selection would finally turn campaign 2012 into a big picture discussion about the role of government and the nature of capitalism. Instead, we got outraged reactions to President Obama joking about Seamus the dog, hours of debate over Joe Biden's use of the word "chains," and a back-and-forth between the campaigns about which presidential candidate was "unhinged." It is 78 days until the election, with 25 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, over 13 million homeowners underwater and our national conversation is still on a level of two children fighting in the back seat of the minivan. Maybe for the first debate, we should strap each candidate into a car seat, give them each a juice box, and let them have at it.

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