All of the pundits to a person have the principal deciding issue for the 2008 election wrong. It will not be Iraq; this war is coming to a sputtering end. It will not be about broadening support for government health care; someone will realize that people do get health care even though they don’t have insurance. Egalitarianism has wide support but this support evaporates when the costs come down on the average person.
What the election will be about is the economy. We are on the beginning of a slide into a recession. At first this slide will be slow. By 14 months the slide will be fast and obvious to all.
Pubbie presidential candidates should prepare now. The reasons for the breaking housing bubble, the consequent loss of assets and the ever growing costs of what counts—food, energy, real estate and its taxes—need thought and addressing now.
Raising taxes will not be popular. Spending on war will not be popular but may be tolerated to a point. Breaking the boom-bust cyle in real estate and the stock market will be the crucial underlying problem that needs to be moved on.
Of course the thinking now a days is that the Fed will prop us up from ever having another recession. Or mellowing out the ones we do have.
I am as worried about energy as I am about housing.
The reason for an economic downturn? It's simple. The Dhimmicrats took control of Congress and it's been downhill ever since.
The campaign next year will be about the catastrophe caused by the 2006 mid term elections. Running against the freaks in power in congress will sweep not only a Republican back into the White House, but will take back one, if not both parts of the legislature.