The road to Pennsylvania Avenue may run through Hampton Roads with a bumpy detour on Wall Street. It sounds like a strange trip,  but we’ve been there before.  Politicians take aim at the rich and powerful, whether the threat is real or imagined, there are a lot of votes among those who value class-envy.

The recent wreck of one time financial stalwarts American Insurance Group (A-I-G) and Lehman Brothers, and the merger of investment giant Merrill, with Bank of America set a match to the wicks of many 401k’s. Compounded with everyone’s favorite outrage, the high cost of gasoline. Throw in a sinking housing market, and you have a candidate’s call for change.

Recent history shows Democrats seem to profit from Wall Street troubles. In 1948, President Harry Truman railed against “bloodsuckers who have offices on Wall Street.”

In the throes of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt criticized “the unscrupulous money changers” who “have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.”

President Clinton, running in 1992 turned a relatively mild recession into the “worst economy in 50 years.”

This financial debacle is much more serious. The government is pledging $700 billion dollars to stop the bleeding from Wall Street to Main Street, and the latest CNN poll showed voters blaming Republicans for the banking mess by a 2-1 margin.

Virginia has been a Republican stronghold for the last 44 years, but could go to the Democrats for the first time since LBJ won his landslide election in 1964. Other polls show John McCain with a large advantage over his younger challenger on various issues of national security. But voters have turned their focus to shrinking 401k’s and plummeting home values, which could paint Virginia blue on November 4th.

Tom Schaad