MTV’s ‘Real World’ wants to cast Occupy Wall Street protestors.

A week ago I noted that little more than a month after Washington’s collective deficit-busting trainwreck the national conversation seemed to have shifted dramatically. The deficit super-committee itself still drives forward toward likely failure. But the relative lack of press attention to its work is actually quite striking, given how soon it will have to report and the massive power it potentially wields over decades of the American future.

It first dawned on me when I saw that whatever else it has accomplished, the president’s never-ending jobs bill tour really has changed the national political conversation. The bill hasn’t passed. But the White House couldn’t have had any illusions that congressional Republicans would pass anything. It’s also had no discernible impact yet on the president’s job approval. But the fulcrum of the debate has changed. And you know that’s happened when Speaker Boehner starts defensively piping up that they’re all over the jobs issue too. Read More