Pride and ignorance goeth before the fall. Having been in the financial services business for a very long time, I've seen this kind of debacle several times. Executive Life, junk bonds, the dot.com meltdown, Equity Funding (many years ago) come to mind, and the pattern always looked the same. Those in charge were always smarter than anyone else and had discovered some new path to endless growth. Skeptics were laughed off and told that they just didn't understand the new paradigm.

In the end, the skeptics were right; there was no new paradigm and the laws of gravity had not been repealed. In the long run the laws of sound business practices cannot be violated.

What can happen is that short term behavior can obscure long term consequences. Countrywide abandoned sound underwriting practices and is paying the ultimate price. What is surprising is that we are surprised. I know a few brokers providing subprime loans and it was clear they were engaged in unsustainable practices.

Here's one law you can always depend on: if it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Be prepared to pay a very big price if you forget this law.

What a clever strip; I'm constantly amazed at the inventiveness of cartoonists and their ability to conceptualize and convert a complex idea into a colorful and visual analogy.

I think the central idea worth evaluating is: did Breathed capture the essence? Anything else is of secondary concern. Look at it this way. If you love apple pie or rare steaks or chocolate chip cookies the only test is does it taste good. It doesn't have to be the best steak ever eaten - it just has to please your palate.

That's the test most of us apply to things we like; originality and uniqueness are not usually the most relevant issues; execution is.

Breathed did not invent every aspect of his cartoon, but he gets an A+ in my book for one simple reason: he nailed the concept and he did it in a very clever fashion.

Having been in sales all my adult life and also having seen and talked with some of the greatest salesmen provides some insight into W.

Being persuasive and charming (which I believe Bush is in person) has no particular correlation to any other skills. I've seen great salesmen who make a 7 figure income who thought they knew everything but in reality didn't know shit. These greatly persuasive salespeople had a God-given gift of persuasion - and not much else.

Now if this reality can take place in sales, then it surely can take place in politics. Is this thought redundant?

Who truly knows just how bright or mature President Bush truly is? I say: it doesn't matter. What does matter is that he has made colossal errors in both judgment and execution of policy.

The law of averages should be on our side: we can't elect two back-to-back incredibly ignorant people to the presidency. Can we?

I have been duly impressed with the breadth and depth of all the letters about W. I agree with almost all the conclusions, but a mystery remains.

How do obviously incompetent people like W get elected?

I remember reading about Bush prior to 2000. The outlines of his behavior were pretty clear even then. Prior to 2004: much more of the same.

Based upon my experience as both a professional salesman and now as a business coach, people make decisions that are often easy and comfortable, especially in the short run. That is how most of our bad decisions were made. "short term gain- long term pain"

We often don't want to admit that things won't work out.

So think about this: have you ever made a bad, or stupid decision? Has that decision had truly negative consequences?

In a moment of honest reflection, you admit to yourself that you made a really bad decision and the reason was often due to some personal weakness, some unrecognized fear or a lack of personal clarity on the issue at hand.

Now if we can do that in our personal lives, while we can generally be though of as being intelligent and yes, even thoughtful, is it all that amazing that someone like W could be elected twice.?

While we always have the opportunity, as sentient beings, to make wise decisions, it's clear that we do not always do so.