I have a perfect example of why I don’t consider myself a very good writer.  Last week I spent lots of bytes trying to explain why I thought that the bailout proposal should be questioned because the administration, a.k.a. The Powers That Be, has spent the last eight years submarining the public trust in America.  Well, if I wrote worth a damn I’d have come up with a paragraph similar to The Cunning Realist’s:

Part of the
public’s skepticism is a natural reaction to the now-transparent
language of deception and hysteria. When you’ve trafficked in mushroom
clouds and Persian Hitlers for eight years, "imminent financial
Armageddon" loses a bit of its edge. Hearing the administration and its
media flacks suddenly and in concert (almost as if a memo went out,
eh?) warn of a latter-day Great Depression and push this as "it’s not a
bailout, it’s a buy-in" sets off alarm bells for anyone who’s been
sentient in recent years. Orwell’s revenge, maybe. Also, I don’t think
the plan’s Goldilocks-invoking supporters help their cause by trying to
convince the public it doesn’t understand the financial system well
enough to know what’s at stake. Somehow they had faith that people were
"smart enough to reject the pessimists" on the way up.

Hat tip to Ed Cone for the link.