This is beginning to look like Religious Theme Week, but believe me, it was unintentional.

Here, I'm responding to the faith many people are investing in Barack Obama and his perceived supernatural ability to pull us out of our morass.

The downside of giving people hope is that you'd better deliver, or they'll turn on you--and they'll be vicious about it. Obama knows this, and he's trying to lower the expectation level so that folks don't get disgruntled when their fortunes haven't miraculously reversed themselves by January 21st.