This week's 'Alpha Jackass' award:

"What I'm looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock  
market but the long-term, uh, ability for the United States and the  
entire world economy, uh, to regain its footing. Uh, and, y-y-you  
know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics.  
It bobs up and down day to day, uh, and if you spend all your time  
worrying about that, you're probably going to get long-term strategy  
wrong. ... What you're now seeing is profit and -- and earning ratios  
are -- are starting to, to get to the point where buying stocks is a  
potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it.  
Uhhh, I think that consumer confidence, as they see the American, uh,  
Recovery and Reinvestment Act taking root, uh, businesses are  
starting to see opportunities for investment, uh, and potential hiring."


Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-That's all folks--Barack Obama