Yeah I won't be one of those people who hopes he fails to save the economy. That's just shooting yourself in the foot. If he succeeds that's wonderful. I still won't agree with him on many things and that won't change. But this situation needs to be fixed.
I have to say, Rush Limburger, one of the main hack pay per pundits that said if you don't believe in Bush, you're a filthy, horrible traitor to the country... the fact that he said "I hope the president fails" speaks not just of hypocrisy, but of rampant UnAmericanism itself. Then I had the displeasure to accidentally tune in Newt Gangreen talk about how the President apparently broke his promise to break partisanship... I mean, HELLO! Dude reached across the aisle to more Republicans than Democrats to get the bill the way it was, only to have the right settle in its ways to vote against it... how can that be breaking a promise if the second party doesn't want to co-operate. Only way things will work out is if both sides co-operate, and their party doesn't want to. I was mad at the right for letting Bush get his way all the time, even on issues that he was 100% wrong on, giving him a blank check, essentially... Now I'm just disgusted by their bitterness, competitive nature, and willingness to let the entire country fail to get another one of their own back in the same seat they had for 8 years. Give someone else a turn.
That said, the president can only do so much. The only jobs he can create are government (specifically construction and environmental type stuff)... he can't say "Oh, you need a job to get you back on your feet, that isn't demeaning and can pay a fair wage? I'll just make a phone call to your local Best Buy or Starbucks and put in a good word for you." Fixing the economy also falls on big business's shoulders too. And they don't seem to be willing to help much. Of course, the only thing that would fix our economy fast would be if China forgave our crippling deficit spent war funding debt. By owning that much money we may never pay off, it devalues our currency. And our currency is the most important in the world. Not to mention American goods (made in China no less) sell better in other countries because of our situation, crippling their business as well... here's something... Japan's market is way down because their yen is so strong, Japanese products can't compete in their own country.
Face it, we've been sitting on a powder keg for years. The housing market (as well as the real cause of the trouble, the 5 dollar a gallon gas that forced spending to be cut back since last Spring) was the match that lit the thing up.