Today, John McCain--in a campaign stop in Florida, again insisted that the United States economy was fundamentally strong. McCain has repeated this assertion several times over the course of this campaign, and in the primaries. It was especially jarring to hear it today, when Lehman Brothers filed for Bankrupcy, and Merril Lynch was swallowed up by Bank of America. As a student of history, it brought to mind the response of President Herbert Hoover to the Great Depression, i.e. : Do Nothing, the economy will take care of itself. Now, I actually think Hoover get treated a little too harshly by history. Prior to becoming president, Hoover was actually considered a national hero. He was an engineer by training, and had traveled the world working on different projects which usually had a humanitarian purpose. Hoover was widely credited with saving tens of thousands from starvation in Europe after World War I by arranging a food assistance program from the US. Unfortunately for Hoover, he was blindsided by the Great Depression and, up until that point in US history, the common wisdom was that the government has no role in managing the economy. FDR changed that thinking.

Fast-forward to 2008: The Bush-appointed Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, engineers a government bailout of a private company--Bear Stearns, then, Bush Treasury Secretary Paulison engineers a bailout of Frannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And these are so-called conservatives!? What would McCain or Obama have done? Not sure. But I'm convinced that had Bush not been in the White House in the first place, none of this would have happened, and since McCain has all but pledged to continue the same economic policies...don't bank on any change coming from him.