Our founding fathers believed that government was necessary because mankind could not always be trusted to make the right choices and some reasonable structured supervision was therefore required. How right they were as we watch the current megacrisis on Wall Street unfold.

Underregulated last year, the five largest financial banks, such as now defunct Lehman Brothers, took bonuses totaling $39 billion while shareholders received $74 billion in losses.

Combined with Wall Street greed and insufficient governmental regulation encouraged by President George W. Bush and Republicans like John McCain who supported his decisions 90 percent of the time, a financial perfect storm has occurred unlike any since the 1929 crash.

When the tickertape calms down the taxpayers will be left with at least a $700 billion bailout for their own money. Pathetic, but at least Bush spared us a sappy fireside chat and tell us "just to go out shopping.”

Unfortunately, under Bush we have witnessed other perfect storms where an unavoidable event, such as 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, has been made markedly worse by bad government action. Both of these stories are well known. While no president would have likely averted 9/11, most presidents would have made the assessment that the heart of terrorism was in Afghanistan and not in Iraq and concentrated our resources accordingly.

Katrina was another unavoidable disaster compounded by ineffectual government action from insufficient levees and an unprepared FEMA led by an unequipped Bush crony. I will never forget the surrealistic sight of Bush standing alone in a generator-lit church yard assuring New Orleans that all would be built better than ever. Deja vu the "Mission Accomplished" he prematurely pronounced on the Iraq war. Now, three years later, New Orleans still awaits restoration.

Are we doomed to perfect storms of unavoidable events, greed and corruption and ineffective government? Was Karl Marx right that capitalism would collapse from within? Will we allow the looming perfect storms of Medicare and Social Security insolvency, oil depletion, global warming, a crisis in education and healthcare and our nation’s crumbling infrastructure to undermine our once-great country?

Have we learned anything from the ineffective thinking and action of the Bush presidency? Will we vote for a vice presidential candidate who just got her passport last year and whose foreign policy experience now consists of a trip to the UN?

Bush, the accidential genius

Actually, I think Bush has been an accidental genius. Because of his actions and inactions we have learned what the bottom line of democracy is...you are truly on your own and if you want something to happen it is up to you and not the government.

Through his incompetence Bush has accomplished what he really wanted—reduced government role in our lives. Genius! Finally, Bush and I agree. It is not until we stop relying on credit and government that we can come to grips with our own destiny.

If you live at the beach, expect to have sand and water periodically in your house. If you live in San Francisco and another 1906 magnitude earthquake occurs, current risk estimates are there will be 100,000 casualties even with a competent FEMA.

But we do need government to accomplish what the citizens individually cannot. If we want freedom we have to pay and volunteer for a strong military. If we want safe airplane flights we must give tax dollars for the FAA. Our list of responsibilities is long and must be better attended to.

It is time for the presidential/vice presidential candidates to get honest with the voters. If McCain believes he can pay for the newly-raised Federal debt of $11.9 trillion without raising taxes, he and Sarah Palin should take a walk on the "bridge to nowhere."  If he continues to hide Palin from the media he is dishonest and Americans are going to figure it out—and hopefully not when she might need to take the oath of office.

Barack Obama has admitted he will have to scale back his programs because of the price of the Wall Street bailout. He needs to come clean on the deficit, and that all of our cherished government subsidy programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, will be at stake.

We need to ask the tough questions now and take appropriate actions to avert the next perfect storm.