Too much fun at the Football Game

My friend Robert Scott drove 12 hours Saturday from Baton Rouge to Columbia to bring tickets to the USC-LSU football game. Elizabeth and I joined him, sitting in the middle of the LSU student section at Williams-Brice Stadium Saturday night. It was too much fun. We hadn't seen Robert in several years. All three of us wished for a different outcome. Robert is a USC alum, and our two children are South Carolina graduates. There was a real chill in the air, perfect football weather. Thanks, Robert, and I hope the rest of your weekend in the mountains is just as great.

What's Football Got To Do With Getting A College Degree, Anyway?

So, Clemson University head football coach Tommy Bowden has lost his job. He'll get to cry all the way to the bank with his $3.5 million golden parachute.

We really need to take a look at our priorities in this country, when coaches who can't win a conference championship in 10 years walk away rich by any South Carolina standard, yet many South Carolina students can't afford a college education, or go deeply into debt to get one.

Tuition for a bachelor's degree at Clemson is currently about $10,000 a year, or $40,000 for the four-year program. Bowden's bonus for missing his MBO would pay for Clemson undergraduate degrees for 87 young people.

Strange priorities for a state with one of the lowest rates of college education, and one of the lowest per-capita incomes in the country.

Will the grown-ups please step forward

Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's speech-writer, just said on Meet the Press that it's time for the grown-ups to step forward, and for the candidates to stop using patriotism as a weapon against each other.

Amen, Peggy.

My family's share of the Wall Street bail-out

Would someone please tell me the address to send the check for my family's share of the Wall Street bail-out?

$12,000. That's the estimated cost for me, my wife, and our two children.

Truth is, if it works, it will be a bargain. We stood to lose a lot more than that if the country falls into a full-blown depression. We (and don't be deceived, we are the government) had to do something!

Government is not the enemy. Government is the way we address our common needs and challenges. After some hesitation last week, we came together to heal a festering wound in our body politic. I hope the patient survives.