January 23, 2009: Priorities, President Obama. Priorities.

Each year the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press take a scientific sample of the priorities of the American people for the coming year. Just released, the results may not reflect what some of our ardent liberal friends desire, but nonetheless reveal a true sense of what is really on the minds and in the pocketbook priorities of Americans - at least in mid-January of 2009.

Here is the list:

Top Priorities for 2009

85% Economy
82% Jobs
76% Terrorism
63% Social Security
61% Education
60% Medicare
59% Health Care
53% Deficit Reduction
52% Health Insurance
50% Helping the Poor
46% Crime
45% Moral Decline
44% Military
43% Tax Cuts
41% Environment
41% Immigration
36% Lobbyists
31% Trade Policy
30% Global Warming

Assuming that focus groups drive public policy at the national level - very similar to the Clinton presidential years, I leave to the investor to heed the prority list in some way. The wants (or lack of wants) polled through the American people may shape the Obama Presidency over the initial stages of his term.

If B.H. Obama is paying attention, Al Gore had better find a creative way to heat up the planet. Fast.