Wicca Economics

JUST after the 2006 election, exultant Democrats and exasperated Republicans identified Iraq and corruption as the decisive issues, and predicted these issues would also shape the 2008 presidential race. They were half right. Voter perceptions of U.S. failure in Iraq and widespread corruption on Capitol Hill did mostly explain the GOP’s loss of its hard-won congressional majority, but they are not driving the 2008 races, at least not anymore. Economic anxieties predominate-and if John McCain pulls off an upset in November, it will be because he raised big doubts about the wisdom and relevance of Obamanomics.

Critics called Ronald Reagan’s 1980 program “voodoo economics” despite the fact that it was based on decades of solid (if innovative) research on how fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policies affect economic growth. Barack Obama’s economic agenda is far less coherent and lacks any organizing principle other than “change.”

About the Author

John Hood

John Hood is president of the John William Pope Foundation, a North Carolina-based grantmaker, and co-founder of Freedom Conservatism.

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JUST after the 2006 election, exultant Democrats and exasperated Republicans identified Iraq and corruption as the decisive issues, and predicted these issues would also shape the 2008 presidential race. They were half right. Voter perceptions of U.S. failure in Iraq and widespread corruption on Capitol Hill did mostly explain the GOP’s loss of its hard-won congressional majority, but they are not driving the 2008 races, at least not anymore. Economic anxieties predominate-and if John McCain pulls off an upset in November, it will be because he raised big doubts about the wisdom and relevance of Obamanomics.

Critics called Ronald Reagan’s 1980 program “voodoo economics” despite the fact that it was based on decades of solid (if innovative) research on how fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policies affect economic growth. Barack Obama’s economic agenda is far less coherent and lacks any organizing principle other than “change.”