Let's be straight here. People who don't have jobs right now could care less about debt. People with jobs? The national debt is one of their biggest long-term concerns.

So, as a political candidate, how do you effectively and honestly balance the people's desire for both short-term growth and long-term fiscal responsibility?

Do you work really hard to educate people in understanding that the long-term plan is in everybody's long term best interest? Or do you talk about tax cuts and spending cuts and job creation and debt reduction in some super-string theory impossible strategy that has no chance of being realistic in the hopes that the economically illiterate in your crowd will cheer because you said the words they were waiting for?

First things first. You need to watch this latest Andy Rooney Hates Video. Seriously. This whole week of thinking only works if you do.

Watch it yet? Ok. Yes, he's crazy. He's a crotchety old man, and virtually nothing would make him happy. So, what on earth could I possibly say as a candidate running for office this year to persuade the Andy Rooneys (+70 people, and a LARGE voting bloc) in my district that I'm going to make their life better during a recession? It's virtually impossible.

And it made me question how on Earth an average person, who isn't ok with lying, can actually gain broad political support while holding firmly to their beliefs.

You're at a town hall meeting with all old people, because no one else can leave work at 3:30 in the afternoon. What do you tell them that wouldn't be outright lies?