President Obama has offered some encouraging words in the past 24-hours. Speaking to the executive group Business Roundable, Obam said that the economic crisis is “not as bad as we thought.” As I noted in my last column, fear has been killing the economy, and perhaps picking up this message that has been flowing from many sources, the President has taken on the role of “confidence builder in chief.” An AP article noted that Obama said Americans shouldn’t be whipsawed by bursts of either bad or good news and he was “highly optimistic” about the long term.