It's A Wonderful Life?

I am a tempest of mixed emotions this a.m., and I thought I would share a few of them with you, my dozens of readers....

First, I should start with my beloved Gamecocks, who proved yet again that you can be good AND mediocre at the same time. God bless 'em, though, because at least it was an entertaining game. And for the record, you CAN put more crap into a four year old than what she actually weighs (M&Ms, cotton candy, some frozen strawberry concoction, and so on.)

Now, my wife and I are far from wealthy (oh yes, we are rich in love), but turning on the TV this morning, one has to wonder if the end of the world is nigh, and if so, will the High Horse of Death be ridden by none other than Gordon Gecko? And is he coming to take away my paltry life savings as a down payment? I grew up in the age of really bad movies (I mean really good, but far from what film critics would call "good"), highlighted by one of my favorites, "Wall Street." (How can you not love to hate and hate to love Gordon Gecko?!?) Point is, it's hard to feel bad for some of the detritus living fat on the cow of the American working man and woman while they cascade ever so violently into the abyss (as I write the this, the Dow is down like 300 points in 25 minutes).

And so while the financial markets give us their version of the bank run of "It's A Wonderful Life," I am torn between glee and real fear. This type of collapse is never good for anyone, and with the economy already struggling, the last thing we need is Ma and Pa Clampett taking their stacks of old, worn dollar bills and hiding them in an empty cookie tin that they keep on top of the fridge.

Why glee? Well, two reasons, really, somewhat unrelated. One, as I mentioned earlier, I've no love for an industry whose raison d'etre is to MAKE MONEY (I know, I'm a commie).

Two, considerably more important, is that despite the cornucopia of screw ups the weekend has revealed from the McCain-Palin campaign, I would REALLY like to see a return to the issues, which I've always believed heavily favored the Democrats. The collapse of Wall Street - predicated on the failure of the mortgage industry - should provide a nice, wide avenue for Barack and co. to start taking well-shaped body shots at the other team. The sooner the race can be framed around a referendum on the Bush economic plan, the better for Obama.

Like I said, who doesn't love to hate Gordon Gecko? He was a Republican, right?