Buffett's Sweet Tooth May Devour Mars: Poll

OMAHA, Neb. (TheStreet) -- Last week was a busy one for Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B). On Friday, Feb. 12, Berkshire finally closed on its acquisition of Burlington Northern (BNI).

The first week of February had been a bit of a downer for the Oracle of Omaha, as Berkshire Hathaway lost its last remaining AAA rating.

However, by Tuesday of last week, Buffett had recovered, even mustering the good cheer to play the capital markets equivalent of Oprah, sitting down for a video one-on-one chat with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that covered topics from TARP to bonuses and, of course, plugging Paulson's new book on the financial crisis, On the Brink.

Buffett may have seemed on the brink of serving as little more than a publicity vehicle for Paulson's book tour when he interviewed the former Fed chief at a meeting of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. However, Buffett is usually one step ahead of the rest of us: he may just be angling for Jay Leno or Oprah's seat, and using Paulson to prove himself as the coming savior of network television, having already saved the U.S. economy.

One can be sure that middle America would tune in -- during day-time talk or late night television -- for some sage, grandfatherly advice from Buffett. Dare we say: Here's Warren!

The S&P 500, at least, was saying "Here's Warren!' at week's end. On Friday of last week, the historic, much-anticipated marriage of Berkshire Hathaway and the S&P 500 Index took place, concurrent with former S&P holding Burlington Northern being folded within Berkshire Hathaway.

There has been so much Berkshire Hathaway news of late, from the S&P 500 inclusion to the related stock split in the Berkshire Hathaway B shares and the related acquisition of Burlington Northern from which it all stems, that Buffett burnout is not hard to imagine among readers -- and even some not-to-be-named financial journalists.

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