Take five steps back and consider the nature of the political conversation in our nation's capital. You would never know that it's taking place at a moment when unemployment is still at 9 percent, when wages for so many people are stagnating at best and when the United States faces unprecedented challenges to its economic dominance. No, Washington is acting here as if the only real problem the United States confronts is the budget deficit; the only test of leadership is whether the president i...