Crystal balls and thinking caps

[Sodbuster]

I was wondering how our inner cross-section of society might respond to two questions:
1) what one piece of advice above all others would folks here have for Obama, and
2) will our economy brighten in 2009, hold its own, or further recede?
Personally, I guess my top piece of advice to Obama would be to heed history; to shun that which hasn't worked in favor of that which has. I'd like to predict we'll hold our own in '09 economically, and that when Americans rise up in the voting booth in 2010 against the sub-standard array of riff-raff and flim-flam operators that got us where we are at this time, we'll be off to the races again. Here's hoping and praying anyways.

[amber]

1) Protect the rights of all Americans, including the ones clinging to guns and religion.
2) The economy will jump up in the short term but it will get much worse before hitting bottom.