Did We Drop the Ball on Unemployment?

So asked Nicholas Kristof the day before yesterday. That piece went straight into my bang-the-poor-head-against-the-garage-door files. Or the I-Give-Up-Political-Blogging files.

Do you think Kristof might have been slumbering behind a tall thorny hedge of roses like the Sleeping Beauty?

How could one otherwise NOT know that both parties in the United States decided on the relative unimportance of the unemployed quite early? How could one otherwise NOT know that we were supposed to discuss deficits, not joblessness, because that was the topic the conservatives selected? How could one otherwise NOT know that every single survey shows that jobs were and are the biggest concern of the American public, though not of the American generic politicians?

I am frightened by the isolation of people who live in the centers of power, truly frightened. The question is not whether the ball on unemployment was dropped. It was never even brought to the field of political plays.