The upcoming election, despite the best efforts of the Obama campaign, the mainstream media, and various polling firms, is going to revolve around two questions: are you better off than you were four ago, and what is the future going to be if Barack Obama is re-elected?  The Obama team is attempting to finesse the first question by obfuscating the second.  They claim that their policies have begun to work, and, given a second term, life would redeem the promises Obama made in 2008.