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"FacebookPinterest\n\nSo you're stuck in line at Chipotle, bored, behind on your news-reading\u2014yet not exactly jonesing for another rehash of the headlines. Enter the Hunger Reads, our daily compendium of the political stories we think you'll actually enjoy reading. (At least more than reading the take-out menu over and over.)\n\nNot As Bad As You Think: End-of-term Report, The Economist \n\nIn fact, Mr Obama is likely to move closer to the centre if he wins a second term. His principal legislative goals\u2014health care and financial reform\u2014are achieved. The Republicans are almost certain to control at least one chamber of Congress, precluding big new spending plans, regardless of the state of the recovery.\n\nThat leaves the public finances. There is little to commend in Mr Obama on that front. True, he inherited the largest budget deficit in peacetime history, at 10% of GDP. But in 2009 he thought it would fall to 3% by the coming fiscal year. Instead, it will be 6%, if he gets his way. Back in 2009, he thought debt would peak at 70% of GDP in 2011. Now it is projected to reach 79% in 2014, assuming his optimistic growth forecast is correct.\n\nThis is not quite the indictment it seems: normal standards of fiscal rectitude have not applied in the past four years. When households, firms and state and local governments are cutting their debts, the federal government would have made the recession worse by doing the same.\n\nLess defensible are the plans for reducing the deficit in the future. Chained to a silly vow not to raise tas on 95% of families, Mr Obama's plans have relied almost exclusively on taxing rich people and companies. Efforts to cut spending have fallen mostly on defence and other discretionary items (meaning those re-authorised each year). He has yet formally to propose credible plans for reducing growth in entitlements. His health-care reform did not worsen the deficit. But it did little about the growth in Medicare, the single-biggest source of long-run spending.\n\nHow He Should Frame the Conversation: Obama's Tricky Convention Task, Molly Ball, The Atlantic\n\nThe incumbent must reintroduce himself to a public that knows him exceedingly well. He must look forward without seeming to avoid responsibility for the past; he must tout his accomplishments without seeming to overlook the nation's continuing misery. He must evoke the promise of 2008, but not so vividly that his present campaign pales in comparison. He must disqualify his opponent, but not to the point that the negativity overshadows the positive message he must simultaneously project.\n\nIt's a lot to get out of one convention, let alone one speech. The week-long infomercial that is a party convention, typically an unparalleled opportunity to broadcast a candidate's sales pitch, for Obama seems more like a series of pitfalls to be avoided.\n\nDemocratic strategists acknowledge it will be a bit of a tap-dance. \"The president needs to tell the American people the story of what he's been able to do,\" said Donna Brazile, who managed Al Gore's campaign in 2000. \"Most Americans know that he inherited a mess. They want to know what he's done to clean it up and what he'll do in the future. He needs to ask people to rehire him to finish the job he started.\"\n\nRead more on Death Race 2012\n\nLadies and Gentlemen, the Political Conventions in One Overhead Exchange\n\nExclusive: GQ Reveals Paul Ryan's Secret Service Code Name!\n\nNancy Pelosi Fails to Come Up With an Inspiring Answer to \"Are We Better Off Than We Were Four Years Ago?\"\n\nThe First Man I Meet in Charlotte Shows Why Obama Is In Real Trouble Here\n\nFollow us @GQPolitics on Twitter for more updates on the campaign trail"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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