I was fascinated to see an article in USA Today this morning in which White House press secretary Robert Gibbs attempted to define what the White House sees as the American Dream: “That you could get a job that pays a living wage, that if you got sick you wouldn’t go bankrupt, that you don’t have to be rich to send your kids to college, that you could have a secure retirement.”

I kind of thought it was more about having the freedom to pursue your goals in life through hard work — with an emphasis on the idea that anyone could become rich. You could start a business and make millions (which is emphatically still true — certainly many self-made millionaires grew up solidly middle class). Now it’s more about protecting yourself from disaster? No wonder people have accused the Obama administration of talking the Dow into the tank with its gloom and doom.