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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\nTaking a Page from Uncle Joe:Five Lessons Obama Should Take From Biden, Alec MacGillis, The New Republic \n\nMake hypocrisy a question of character. One of Obama's problems last week was that he was suddenly faced with the dilemma his campaign had expected this year but had not yet had to face: how to deal with Etch-a-Sketch Romney. Simply painting Romney as a flip-flopper doesn't suffice, because that might just assure some swing voters that Romney will revert from his \"severely conservative\" mode to his Massachusetts moderate mode once he becomes president. Again, Biden showed the way last night, even though he had less of a target in the more consistently conservative Ryan. He hit Ryan for having attacked the stimulus program at the same time as he was seeking money from it for his own district. The message was plain: Ryan and other Republicans were hypocrites. It was one of Ryan's weakest points of the night:\nBIDEN: And I love my friend here. I\u2014I'm not allowed to show letters but go on our website, he sent me two letters saying, \"By the way, can you send me some stimulus money for companies here in the state of Wisconsin?\" We sent millions of dollars. You know...&amp;gt;\n\n (CROSSTALK)&amp;gt;\n\n\n\n RADDATZ: You did ask for stimulus money, correct?&amp;gt;\n\n\n\n BIDEN: Sure he did. By the way...&amp;gt;\n\n\n\n RYAN: On two occasions we\u2014we\u2014we advocated for constituents who were applying for grants. That's what we do. We do that for all constituents who are...&amp;gt;\n\n\n\n (CROSSTALK) BIDEN: I love that. I love that. This was such a bad program and he writes me a letter saying\u2014writes the Department of Energy a letter saying, \"The reason we need this stimulus, it will create growth and jobs.\" His words. And now he's sitting here looking at me.\n\nOof. Ryan looked like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. It should be even easier to do the same with Romney. Not to cast him simply as a weathervane, but as someone who will do and say whatever it takes to win the presidency\u2014as, literally, grasping. Yes, I said it: literally!\n\nWhat Our Cast Ballots Really Mean: November 7th, Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine\n\nBut when you press the candidates to explain just how it is they could escape the muck that has ensnared Obama the past two years, they descend into mushy platitudes. Romney promises \"leadership in Washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done, and could not care less if it's a Republican or a Democrat\"--at most a mild Republican retreat from Obama's aggressive reforms, or perhaps even a reprise of Romney's often liberal tenure in Massachusetts. Obama, for his part, has offered up an even less plausible scenario, which is that, even though Republicans in Congress responded to his 2008 victory by becoming even more radical than they were under George W. Bush, winning a second election will beat the crazy out of them and usher in a new era of legislative compromise and good feelings.\nIt seems natural to conclude from all this vapid, buoyant patter that neither candidate has a plausible blueprint to avoid political gridlock, and that, whoever wins, the stalemate of the past two years will grind on into the next four. President Obama would still likely face a Republican House, and President Romney a Senate in which Democrats can mount a filibuster. Yet all the signs suggest both candidates do have strategies in mind to prod the creaky machinery of Washington to life and effect the dramatic change they vaguely but ardently promise. In fact, shortly after the next Inaugural Ball\u2014perhaps very, very shortly after\u2014the great stalemate between socialism and social Darwinism will break open and likely turn decisively in one direction or the other.For different reasons, the candidates cannot openly describe these plans to the voters. But the clues are everywhere.\n\nRead more on Death Race 2012\n\nYour No-Bullsh*t Media Diet: Chris Hayes Edition\n\nToday's Political Firestorm: Neither Mitt nor Barack Crazy About Candy\n\nTrail Gear: McKay Coppin's Energy Fix\n\nHunger Reads: The Making of Mitt and Why He's Having A Moment\n\nThe GQ&amp;amp;A with Jim Lehrer\n\nFollow @GQPolitics on Twitter for more updates on the campaign trail"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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