Ever an Optimist, I am...

If Maureen Dowd has this right, and even the patriotic first/second generation idealist in me suspects she does, that's no reason for pessimism, necessarily.

But now trust levels are drooping even lower. The public has less faith in Congress than Wall Street, and that’s saying something. Most Americans either feel that government is broken or that the fix is in, so that special interests and a handful of people at the top are the only ones benefiting.

The last century was the American century. But this one will not be, thanks to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who used their boots and spurs to ride roughshod over the globe and American economy. They spent eight years and trillions of dollars either barging into stuff they should have left alone or leaving alone stuff they should have intervened on.

It's a change in mindset that's needed, really.
Try this on for size: We're Number Two. We Try Harder.

Personally, I like it. The man who created that line for Avis, the late Robert Townsend, had a book out a few years ago, oh hell a decade at least by now, and I had the pleasure of interviewing him as a freelancer .

He had a great attitude.* Sometimes, you see, success spoils you.

If we can get out from under this current fiscal crisis, as an intact country, and figure out a way to backtrack on our promises before the demographics bankrupt us, that really is something to shoot for:

We're Number Two. We Try Harder.

No shame in being an up-and-comer. Beats being a fatcat only grazing off other people's efforts, if you ask me...

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* Up the Organization was his too. See here.