financial crisis du jour

This ugly financial thing rolls on. There is little honesty in the debates and plenty of blame to go around to everyone. The main problem is that government decisions are the net result of special interests, lobbyists and personal greed. The stunted product can offer little help and often is so deformed it creates lines of ingrained bureaucracies, hard-wired stupid precedents and general idiocy. Then the battle is with the product and not the original problem.The meaning of the word "candidate" is from the same root word as "Candide" and "candid"; it means "white", "unadulterated","unsullied". The original Greek candidates wore white. These guys should wear quilts.
Incompetence is a factor too, of course. Where has Bush been? How can the senate majority leader say "No one knows what to do"? What is Pelosi doing in a national office? And how is it possible that the major nation in the western world has as its "candidates" for the nation's highest office two nonentities, each with his own person brand of dangerous uncertainty.