Politics: whatever it is, it doesnt' matter

A great Slate article pointing out that Kerry's proposals will add a little over a trillion to the deficit. And Bush's will add between 2 and 3 trilliion, if you include privatization (i.e. abolishment?) of social security. If you don't, the figure is still slightly higher (1.33 trillion vs. 1.27 trillion). As this dude points out, "not bad for a conservative." The bottom-line to a great read:

Instead of trying to master the details of complicated new proposed initiatives, focus on the following question: Which of these guys will do a better job cleaning up the horrible fiscal mess left behind by President Bush's first term? Because, when you get down to it, that's the only honest job description for the domestic-policy part of this gig. One way to answer that question is to compare Bush's $2 trillion to $3 trillion in new costs to Kerry's $1.27 trillion. Another is to see if you can identify which candidate even recognizes that there's a mess to clean up. Come to think of it, that isn't a bad method for sizing up the foreign-policy debate part of this job, either.