• OBAMA GIVES BERNANKE VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

In the reality of continuing negative economic news, American taxpayers are looking for signs of relief. With mortgages sliding under water, automobiles getting yanked out of garages and taken back to lenders, food costs becoming a sobering family burden, and with commuting to work becoming a deep breathing exercise as fuel gage movement becomes a source of anxiety, America is anxiously seeking leadership out of its mess. Obama’s thumbs-up on Bernanke is a depressing sign.

Bernanke has shown no capacity to forge a path different from the one Greenspan followed for a whole generation under four presidents. The restored economic health of the country is the principal concern of all voters. The Fed has implemented decisions, and has been supportive of economic policies that brought America its housing bubble, as well as unfathomable National and personal debt levels. Fed policy led a majority to view their homes as repositories of wealth. Homes became piggy banks, and to make things worse, the lack of regulations or restrictions on lenders turned trillions of dollars worth of real estate into a Wild West Show.

America not only yearns for, but badly needs new, knowledgeable and judicious leadership. The next President doesn’t have to be prescient, but should at least demonstrate some grasp of economics enough to pick the best of the brains around him or her. Obama directing a vote of confidence toward Bernanke disturbingly demonstrates a complete lack of familiarity with the complexities of the beast that America needs taming. His economic advisors should all be replaced, and he should close himself off in a room somewhere, and spend some serious time getting educated. It doesn’t matter that McCain isn’t any more economically literate since America isn’t looking to him for change or innovation. If Obama wants to inhabit the White House, he needs to brush up on the source of America’s most critical concern.