Bush promise to eliminate deficit by 2012

This is a great idea. Make a promise to do something everyone (almost) recognizes as important without discussing the tradeoffs/consequences, how you would achieve it, and using a time table (4 years after his term of office ends) that he will have no responsibility or accountability for.

The funny thing is that from what we know about human decision making (check out my other blog at humanfactors.blogspot.com to learn more) this actually works. Most people support candidates based on their values, not the details of how they will implement specific policies they have "soundbited" (my word).

So in the end, we elect people that either have intentionally misled us or have their heads in the clouds that they can achieve the impossible. Either way, I would prefer to elect someone else and I think we would all be better off that way in the end (and even in the beginning). That is why Social Security, Medicare, global warming, etc will never be dealt with until they truly become emergencies, at which time it will be 10 times as expensive to fix.

Anyone have ideas on how to solve this conundrum?