IMHO hybrids do make financial sense in one particular way, even in the short run:
the particular way is when all costs of driving are considered - which they obviously are not by standard calculations. By all costs I mean costs related to global warming, climate change, direct and local pollution effects. If those effects were converetd to a dollar cost lets say per mile driven, or per gram of carbon dioxide emitted, then hybrids would very much make financial sense right away.