Smarter than WE?

Are they smarter than WE THE PEOPLE? In the course of the 2008 political campaign no enthusiasm was hidden by this author for the political and oratory skills of our our now President of the United States: Barack Obama. What an amazing ride we took. To think that less than 4 and a half years ago this man was the junior senator for the state of Illinois. After spending less than 12 months in congress Senator Obama began the process even he seemed unconvinced was possible. Running for President of the United States of America. And now he leads this great country with the brains and talent that brought him to us through our political process. What have we to show for his 'Change we can Believe In'?

• a 'stimulus' package that is almost a trillion dollars
• we have an equity market that has plunged more than 2000 pts since he took office Jan 20
• we have the worst "crisis" since the great depression
• we have rhetoric that is making the situation even worse
• and a chief of staff to the President not afraid to use crisis to further a political agenda
  

Is this the change that we can believe in? I am hopeful...but not convinced. We have a president that we risk criticizing for fear of being spun back as racists, and an administration that appears to be headed down the exact same road that FDR took us down so a many years ago. In the mid-1920's Herbert Hoover flooded the market with dollars, just like George Bush's federal reserve did last year. De ja vu all over again. After Hoover FDR, a smart fellow, came along and offered us make work programs, just like Obama now. The great depression extended 10 more years into the late 1930's. I am hoping against hope that this group knows what they are doing. Hoping against hope that they are smarter than we. The logical conclusion, in my view, to all of this is that the socialist tendencies that we saw in Barack Obama are coming home to roost right before our very eyes. The largest businesses in the US are looking for 'help' from the government. Our banks (CITI, AIG, etc). Our manufacturers(GM, Chrysler, etc). How can we remain a capitalist nation if the means of production (our companies) and the capital that supports that production (our banks) are beholden to, (or worse yet, owned by) the government?

Socialism: a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating public or state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and a society characterized by equal opportunities for all individuals, with a fair or egalitarian method of compensation.

Does the populace know that the 'change we can believe in' is called Socialism? Do we care?