George W. Bush's presidency began to go off track with his vision that he could bring democracy, stability and peace to the Mideast by going to war in Iraq -- all before he finished the war in Afghanistan.

At first it looked like he would succeed when the U.S.-led coalition routed Saddam Hussein from power so quickly. But Bush and his Pentagon team failed to anticipate, much less repel, the insurgency that followed. Several years of failure followed until Bush named Gen. David Petraeus to head up the troop surge following the 2006 midterm elections.

Though the surge largely succeeded -- to the consternation of Bush's critics -- the outcome is still a far cry from the stable, democratic Mideast peace that Bush had envisioned. Looking back, it's clear many of his foreign policy decisions were not only wrong, but were born of hubris and expectations way beyond what was possible.

Now you have to wonder if President-elect Barack Obama isn't embarking down the same "hubris path" in domestic policy that Bush took in his foreign policy.

Is Obama expecting too much from his stimulus plans? Is he biting off more than he can chew? We hope not, but all the promises he's made, even since his election, have us concerned.

Can his administration really create or preserve, via bailouts, 2.5 million jobs over the next two years while reducing taxes for 95 percent of the people -- including those who don't pay taxes?

Even assuming a president can "create" jobs, which is fallacious, that seems like an awfully tall order, particularly since Obama plans to do it with huge federal "investment" programs, especially in infrastructure and "green" technology needs.

Politicians pushing for more government intervention in our lives have learned to describe their big spending programs as "investments." But that's a canard. Only the private sector can create wealth.

Government doesn't invest, it spends; it doesn't create jobs either, though it may encourage their creation with taxpayer money.

And taxpayer money comes from individuals, families and businesses that earn it in the private sector. Without a flourishing private sector, there can be no government "investment. Certainly the government can print money, inflate the currency and run up trillions of dollars in deficits. But that's not investing; it's committing economic suicide.

Obama's huge federal stimulus projects may work for awhile -- just as they did during the first few years of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency -- but after that, unless the private sector revives, the economy will go downhill fast as businesses collapse, markets crash, and jobless rates soar to double-digit Depression levels.

Government stimulus packages and bailouts cannot by themselves bring the economy back to life, but done properly they can be the medicine that helps the private sector economy get back on its feet. It's a delicate recovery procedure -- one that we all hope an Obama administration can pull off.

There has been some talk from the Obama team -- albeit unnamed sources -- that he will leave the Bush tax cuts alone for now, won't be raising taxes on "the wealthy" anytime soon, and that he may even ask Congress for a cut in corporate taxes. Indeed, these actions would be very healthy for the private sector. Let's hope they're not just rumors.

When hubris gives way to common sense, good things can happen -- in both foreign and domestic policy.