Columnist Diana West can't figure out why so many Americans believe Barack Obama as more capable of dealing with the current economic crisis when Obama had a lot to do with causing the mess in the first place.

"The fact is, if American citizens become too widely acquainted with the fact that race-based social engineering virtually created the sub-prime mortgage industry that has transformed the U.S. economy into The Titanic, Obama will sink in the polls," West writes. "That's because race-based social engineering is what Obama both advanced as a so-called community organizer, and later funded as an official of Chicago's Woods Fund, where he served alongside unrepentant terrorist and political ally William Ayers — another phantom political fact citizens now pondering their presidential votes are not supposed to consider."

Relying on Obama to deal with the economy is the same as sending in an arsonist to put the fire he started, West argues.

Read her full column in today's edition of The Mercury.