Patientrenter: Excellent post. I started my corporate career in insurance and surety as an accountant. I moved up through the ranks and, the longer I was there, the more I realized what a complete and total racket the insurance business is. You can dress up it any way you’d like, but, at it’s heart it’s a shakedown racket.

Similarly, politics in the last thirty years has been a racket all it’s own and on both sides of the aisle. Your ideas of fairness are spot on and I’d like to add honesty to fairness. The problem is this: No one in Washington or New York wins if fairness and honesty are the order of the day.

Do you believe that Obama has the requisite political capital to look the American people in the eye and tell them the truth regarding wages, taxes and the very solvency of this country? No chance in hell! Do you think Rubin, Summers, Geithner, Paulson or any that crew have the courage to admit before Congress and the people that America has been gaming the world financial system since the 1970s?

I believe that if the entire system were openly exposed to the harsh light of day, it would collapse like the rotten house of cards that it is and the resultant populist rage would trigger nothing short of a revolution. No, that isn’t hyperbole. Look at the backlash surrounding the AIG bonuses and you’ll get an inkling of the rage that is simmering just below the surface of this country.

Obama and his crew are going to say ONLY what they CAN say and they are going to do what they HAVE to do. As I’ve opined before: Sometimes the choices aren’t between good and bad, they’re between bad and worse.