Shorter Ezra Klein:

[W]hen you read things like “some economists say Greece’s departure from the euro will not be as much of a shock as the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, which provoked a global financial crisis,” it’s a reminder that 2012 isn’t just about framing speeches, or a debate about the country’s future. The president and the Congress might be called on within a couple of weeks or months to protect the U.S. economy from a Lehman-like event, the aftermath of which will not wait for the next president to settle in.

Which is why the second scariest sentence I read today is “Senate Republicans will block all of President Barack Obama’s high-level judicial nominees until after the election.”

Whole article well worth reading. And reminds me that a) I’m still waiting for the It’s Even Worse Than It Looks meme to be treated with anything like seriousness in political discussion, and b) that the media is as much to blame as anyone else for the trivia that’s dominating the 2012 political cycle.