Here's hoping ...

^
Man, am I ever hopeful now!

I hope President Obama is as much substance as he is sizzle. America needs a lot of the former and none of the latter.

I hope Bud Selig realizes how outrageous it is that he'll again make an eight-figure salary this year while MLB.com just cut the pay of its recent-college-grad summer interns from $500 per week to zero.

I hope the economy can get fixed so that, in 10 years, all of our investments will at least be worth 75 percent of what they were six months ago.

I hope Mickey Rourke wins a well-deserved best-actor Oscar for his amazing work in The Wrestler.

I hope for peace in the Middle East - and I hope nobody thinks I'm insane for even suggesting it's possible.

I hope to see LeBron vs. Kobe in a seven-game NBA Finals.

I hope our new president and the rest of our leaders can figure out a few ways to remedy the credit and housing crises that don't involve saddling our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren with several quadrillion dollars of debt.

I hope Tiger comes back healthy; if he doesn't, why even bother having a PGA Tour?

I hope that one of these nights, ex-Decider Dubya wakes up in a cold sweat, having finally realized he was manipulated for eight years by puppetmaster Dickie Veep.

I hope the second season of True Blood will be as entertaining as the first.

I hope everybody realizes that once most newspapers are out of business, there will be nobody to expose the crooks we elect.

I hope "wounded pride" is the only injury any ballplayer suffers in the utterly unnecessary World Baseball Classic.

I hope people stop losing their jobs. I don't need the company.