Great Failures of 2008 and Their Potential Benefits for 2009

Excepted in Philadelphia Inquirer Opeds 12/31

2008 provided an embarrassing, albeit sometimes disastrous cascade of evidence that so-called brilliant minds weren't so brilliant. One need not go any farther that former Federal Reserve chairman and former market genius Alan Greenspan who was "shocked" to find a flaw in his no-regulations-needed-here ideology or that the Gray Lady of Spoof, National Lampoon spoofed their stock value right into a federal securities fraud case.

The good news is that all those mistakes, blunders and seeming outright failures hold much promise for the rest of us to gain something tangibly positive. "Learn from the mistakes of others," said Eleanor Roosevelt. "We don't have the time to make them all ourselves."

Here's your somewhat skewed guide for making your own new years lemonade out of someone else's old lemons.

2008 Failure: Sarah Palin may or may not have caused John McCain to lose the presidential election but her less than perfect performance certainly gave plenty of material to comics with SNL's Tina Fey being the primary recipient.

What Could Have Been Learned?: Before selecting the person who will be fifty percent of your team, make sure she can at least memorize the name of at least one paper she reads.

Was It Learned?: Barack Obama will be sworn in January 20.

How Can We Benefit in 2009?: No matter what kind of relationship you're thinking of getting into, make sure you find out everything you can about who you're getting involved with. If not, seriously consider a career in standup Read the Rest of the Great Lessons to Be Learned Here

Award-winning TV writer, Steve Young is author of Great Failures of the Extremely Successful blogs at the appropriately named, steveyoungonpolitics.com