Compared to last night's political gloom (at my pad, anyway), today's corporate news seems downright cheery ...

Isle of Capri announced widening Y/Y losses today, along with the retirement of CEO Bernard Goldstein after 16 years at the helm. He gives way to board member James Perry, former CEO of Argosy Gaming and (briefly) Trump Entertainment. Along with COO Virginia McDowell, Perry presided over Argosy's glory years, ones in which it emerged as the Rolls-Royce of riverboat-casino companies, eventually making it a takeover target for Penn National.

Perry faces a daunting task at Isle, whose stock is trading at a seven-year low. According to Isle, Perry has a turnaround plan in place, whose components include reintroducing the Lady Luck brand (to connote second-tier markets), upgrading amenities -- not currently regarded as one of Isle's strengths -- and a downsizing at the corporate level.

However, in a possible allusion to the scorched-earth business methods of competitor Columbia Sussex, McDowell says, "We recognize, however, that companies cannot save their way to success and we continue to reallocate our resources in order to improve the overall guest experience," etc.

Isle's net revenues were up, but largely on the strength of newly opened or acquired properties (like its Waterloo, Iowa casino, above). One of those is the Casino Aztar boat in Caruthersville, Mo., which the state wouldn't let Columbia Sussex acquire in the Aztar buyout.

Back out the new properties and the balance sheet looks a whole lot worse, with revenue down 11% instead of up 17%.

Louisiana and Mississippi revenues are down, as casino competition returns to pre-Katrina/Rita levels. In Iowa, Isle is experiencing the same malaise as nearly everyone else -- a plight that's bound to worsen if the state approves as many five new casinos. Nearly $5 million went down the tubes in a doomed tilt at the Pittsburgh market and a foolish run at Singapore.

Trump Entertainment Resorts was also feeling the pain today, as losses grew a jaw-dropping nineteen-fold (yes, 19X) on a 6.4% slip in revenue, coming in 2% below analyst expectations. The loss was swollen by a $147.4 million in "intangibles," plus a $91.3 million write-off on the declining value of Trump Marina. "There's no question Atlantic City is a difficult environment to operate in, and some properties had a difficult fourth quarter,'' remarked Bear Stearns analyst Carlo Santarelli, displaying a genius for understatement.

Those whom God wishes to punish, he sends them months and months more of America's un-fun couple, the Clintons. Remember what I said about the fabled Conventional Wisdom doing an about-face should HillRod pull an Ohio/Texas victory from the jaws of defeat? Sure enough, today you can read how her campaign "validated a last-ditch strategy," as though it had any alternative. Yup, those 11 straight losses were mere rope-a-dope, luring the Obama camp into a March 4 ambush.

Yeah. Right. Hindsight is not only 20/20 inside the Beltway; it's just had Lasik surgery, too. (Speaking of rope-a-dope, this might be the time for Sen. Obama to start landing a few shots instead of just taking them. I've no appetite for Kerry: The Sequel.)