(Newser) – With Wall Street unraveling, Roger Cohen writes in the New York Times, we should remember who taught America all about incautious betting: President Bush, “the first person to reprice risk on the basis it no longer existed.” The Iraq war was a gamble with US lives and money, even as he allowed the markets to “turn capitalism into a pyramid scheme for trading worthless paper.”

Enough gambling for America, says Cohen. If John McCain is elected, actuarially speaking, there is a 1 in 6 or 7 chance of Sarah Palin becoming president. That's quite a roll of the dice. "The lesson of the last 8 years is this: when power is a passport to gamble, people can end up seriously broke or seriously dead." (Read more John McCain stories.)

