The Christian Science Monitor writes about Henry Paulson, new Treasury Secretary as follows:

The wide gap between the richest and poorest Americans has not often been the topic of choice for the Bush administration's two previous Treasury secretaries.

So it was notable this week that Henry Paulson, the president's latest Treasury head, chose to put that issue on his short list - as one of the nation's four prominent, long-term economic challenges. Mr. Paulson's head-on approach during one of his first public appearances as secretary differs from his predecessors' strategies, some analysts say.

The optimist in me thinks that someone in the administration has finally figured out that continued collusion with rich and powerful elites is morally offensive and a failed strategy. Maybe the President's often-avowed Christian values will finally start to become evident in his political life. The pessimist, however, suspects that as Paulson's agenda becomes more widely known within the administration, he'll be quietly forced out.