IS OBAMA 'THE ONE?'

Oprah said she thought Obama was THE ONE, and now that he's been elected, others are hoping she's right. Let's face it, all of us are hoping she's right. The conservatives are, of course, disappointed that their messiah (msiah?) Sara Palin didn't get elected. Ms. Palin is in Alaska mourning the loss of the wardrobe she must return to the Republican Party. They offered her $75,000, she spent $150,000. OK, economics wasn't her strong suit, but it wasn't McCain's either.

Actually, after listening to the endless array of financial experts presenting solutions, and listening to another endless array of experts explaining why the first group is wrong, I've come to the conclusion the mess we're in is so complex and so deep that nobody really knows how to fix it.

First, the polititians went into panic-mode and started throwing billions of tax payers dollars at the problem. McCain flew down to Washington and sat for a day without adding anything to the discussion. He was tired and it all went over his head anyway. Greed being the main cause of the problem, our brilliant polititians decided throwing billions of taxpayer dollars into the greedy maws of Wall Street was the best solution. The banks took the money and sat on it, or invested it for themselves. They were suppose to help create a money-flow to stimulate the economy, this was after all a stimulus package, instead like the money-junkies they are, they kept it all . And the nefarious AIG threw excessive parties for themselves with our money. Now AIG had said it was fairly solvent and only needed, you know, maybe 84 billion or so to stay afloat. Well, those billions disappeared almost as soon as they touched AIG's outstretched hand, and now they're out there with a bigger tin cup. The suspicion is they lied about being close to solvent and the money disappeared into a huge debt they were trying to hide. So, the polititians who know nothing about economics except that it involves money are just throwing it right into the same hole we're trying to crawl out of. Paulson finally (!) realized this was stupid and has started putting some of the money where it might actually do some good. But it's only the beginning. If ignorance is bliss, our polititians are in nirvana. Somebody has to attack this crisis with intelligent action. Obama, if you are the messiah, it's time for your first miracle.