October 7, 2008 - Well, we have come to the last reel. The old diminutive gunslinger is due in on the Last Train from Yuma. Miss Sarah in Prada Pumps has loaded up her trusty shooting iron and is skulking up the alley toward the depot winging wild shots toward the cool hero standing in the dusty street. The Fortunate Son from Connecticut (played by Harvey Korman) is down at the bank; packing to get outta Dodge and stuffing his pockets with sub-prime mortgages.

The advanced reviews promised us something different. It wouldn’t be another potboiler. Nope, this would be a dignified version of our quadrennial mellerdrama. This one would be focused on the issues, they said. There wouldn’t be any personal attacks, they said. Not this year, they said. 

America deserved something better they said. But that was before the banks started foreclosing on the sod-busters. That was before the big banks gobbled up little banks and the big banks were gobbled up by bigger banks. That was before greed was revealed as naked lust for power and the people down on Main Street began to open just one eye to see it and wonder why they was out in the cold eating beans around a campfire while the gunslinger from out west was sitting in one of his seven dining rooms supping on caviar and Arizona bar-be-que.

We should have known it would come to this. They wasn’t gonna let no hyper-educated elitist Half-Breed take over, no-siree-Bob! So the townsfolk are peeking out from behind dirty lace curtains at the Half-Breed striding confidently toward the depot down Main Street as the clock ticks toward High Noon. The only thing that we can do is to wait for the credits to roll and see if the screen play was written by Mel Brooks.