Exactly, but those failures are the direct result of the way those in charge of the government since the beginning of the Reagan administration FAILED to recognize that the people involved in the the financial and market institutions, and those in charge of managing the manufacturing enterprises of this country were given to the same human failings and foibles as every other human.

JUST BECAUSE YOU MAKE A LOT OF MONEY OR HAVE FOUND A WAY TO MAKE IT TO THE TOP DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE SMART NOW OR YOU WERE SMART TO BEGIN WITH (at least not in any way that's useful to humanity)! IT ONLY MEANS YOU'RE GOOD AT THE GAME AS IT'S CURRENTLY BEING PLAYED.

The very idea that humans would be "rational actors" (Allen Greenspan, among others) flies in the face of what every psychological counselor, every school teacher, every parent, every clergy person (of EVERY faith) knows about the nature of humans.

When the rewards are great, no one seems to be watching, and NO ONE's going to stop you, very few people will behave in morally or ethically justifiable (or even logically sensible) ways. Given the right circumstances, almost everyone will become a con/ripoff artist.

Add to that Wall Street's ear-shattering screaming that EVERY company must pursue policies that were the absolute worst for the vast majority of the American people while, at the same time shouting down the leaders of every company that was actually behaving in long-term, sustainable, employee-friendly (and therefore, America-friendly) ways, and you have the recipe for this disaster.

As to the reptile... if the Obama administration says "up," he's guaranteed to claim "down" was the only answer. If they propose more bailouts, he'll claim less should have been done. If they severely restrict the use of bailout funds, he'll claim they should have had no restrictions or the opposite in the opposite case.

The man is a shameless, useless, immoral, unethical (in both his public and private life) demagogue, and if my Republican friends are inclined to listen to him, I'd encourage them to go back and look at the history of what happened last time he was in charge of ANYTHING!

NOTHING TO LOSE

(they've lost it all, already, because the public has finally relized that this "generational theft" Obama is being accused of is necessitated by the need to fill in the hole left by ridiculously over leveraged investments based on the "free market" financial theft perpetrated by Wall Street and the Republicans against the poor and middle class over the past 30 years. - The frat boys trashed the house. Now the adults are stuck cleaning up and making very expensive repairs).

NOTHING TO GAIN.

but such courage! to stand in the way as much as possible and then criticize how those cleaning up YOUR mess are doing their jobs!!... (if they'd just have left the mess alone, nobody would ever have known it was there).

Maybe the pentagon could spare another plane for him to crash. If he took some of his buddies with him for a little supersonic joy ride,??? awwwwwwww...

And, although Ms. Bachmann is not from my district and I did not have the DISTINCT pleasure of voting for her opponent, nevertheless...

I apologize to the universe that other people in my home state have elected this... ?person?... twice.

Speaking of the movie "Fargo," I would think Marge the Sheriff would have made an excellent representative.

Sadly, the folks from our 6th Congressional District misfired a bit and elected the young woman who described one of the criminals in the movie as "kinda funny lookin!"

Finally, if you want to know where Mickey's ideas are coming from... she's channeling her husband (as every good little Christian fundamentalist "Quiverfull" wifey must do).

Isn't the purpose of of a Presidential Press Conference to give the president the opportunity to inform the public?

Isn't calling on a wide variety of reporters from EVERY kind of news outlet an excellent way of being sure a variety of subjects are covered?

Can't we generally predict just what kind of inane, stupid, self-congratulatory, inside-the-beltway, insider "look at us aren't we cool!" questions the MSM reps are going to ask and aren't we sick to death of such questions?

Getting asked a question (or not) is not an endorsement of your news organization (or not), nor is it a validation of your personal worth, or "coolness" quotient, or your "in the know" insider status as a reporter, although a certain recent presidential regime made press conferences exactly that.

If, however, you repeatedly prove you can't ask intelligent questions or intelligent follow ups but are only trying to take advantage of your time in the spot light to prove how cool you are to the rest of the Jr. High-mentality bullies, it's likely you're not going to get additional chances to do so.