It’s not just the teenyboppers who are buying into the Obama-as-Messiah hype:

The election of Barack Obama would create an immediate economic boost for the United States, former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young told me this week. “Nothing would have more impact on the economy and the price of oil than his election as president,” Young said. “There would be a boost of 1,000 points on the stock market the first week after he’s elected. This would be better than a chicken in every pot.”

(Recall, of course, that “a chicken in every pot” was the slogan for Herbert Hoover.)

UPDATE: I wouldn’t be so bold as to contend that the stock market moves in direct correlation to developments in the presidential race. Obviously, stocks and markets rise or fall based on many, many factors. But I would note that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed on January 3, 2008, the day of the Iowa caucuses, at 13,056.72.

One day later, after Obama won the Iowa caucuses, it closed at 12,800.18.

It has been a volatile year, as the DJIA closed at 11,374.32 yesterday.