I was going to write a post about my predictions about what you won’t hear President Barrack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney talk about during Wednesday’s debate. But then I realized it’s my birthday (really) and I don’t want to work that hard. Besides, all these folks already have (okay, a couple of these are from me):

• The deficit code: Sounds like the de rigueur of debate night, right? Not if I’m reading this Mother Jones piece right. Reducing the deficit would mean higher unemployment? That and other nuggets I’m guessing we won’t be hearing out of the mouths of babes candidates.
• Reading, writing & arithmetic: Oh sure, they’ll talk about how the system is broken. But will they mention any of these five suggestions to fix it?
• Hot or not: Climate change was an issue in the 2008 election cycle, but what has it done lately? Grist suggests a few questions for the candidates (and some answers). And thousands have signed petitions asking that the issue be featured in the debate.
• The wage gap: The amount of money a woman is owed for the same work that a man does — otherwise known as that old 77 cents on the dollar wage gap — could put groceries on the table for eight months. A candidate gives us more than just pillow talk about that, and I’ll be damn impressed. Indeed, if we paid women equally to men, the GDP would go up by an estimated 9 percent. Impressed?
• VAWA: Here’s a fun debate drinking game: Take a drink every time either candidate mentions VAWA. Bet you’re still sober by the end. …After years of bipartisan support, the critical Violence Against Women Act reauthorization has been rewritten by a conservative House (so long, protections for LGBT individuals, immigrants, Native Americans, and more) and leveraged as a political pawn. (The Senate passed another version this spring and the two houses are at a stalemate.) But it is estimated that domestic violence costs our economy more than 8 billion dollars a year in lost productivity. With states like Nevada (ranked highest in domestic violence fatalities) reporting half of all women experiencing some form of domestic violence, this is not a wedge issue or a pet project. This is about people lives.