Economists Favor Obama

Dilbert creator Scott Adams, who claims to "lean Libertarian, minus the crazy stuff" commissioned an independent study by The OSR Group, "a respected national public opinion and marketing research company." of the American Economics Association and learned that economists in this esteemed group, on the whole, tended to favor Barack Obama's policies over those of John McCain's on issues most of importance to them. Most economists are male and registered as either Democrats or Independents. The survey sample was made up of:

48% Democrats
17% Republicans
27% Independents
3% Libertarian
5% Other or not registered


According to the report summary:

By a margin of 60-32%, economists believe Barack Obama would be better than John McCain at making progress on the issues that are most important to the economy. (The remaining 8% see no difference between the candidates on this measure.)

By an almost identical margin (59-31%), economists think Obama would be best for the economy overall, over the long term. (Ten percent say there would be no difference between the candidates.)

If the election were held today, 66% of the economists would favor Obama and 28% would favor McCain. (Six percent would favor someone else.)

The economists surveyed ranked these issues as most important (The percentages indicate how many rated each issue eight or higher on a scale of 1-10.):

71 percent -- Education
67 percent -- Health care
62 percent -- International trade
60 percent -- Energy
58 percent -- Encouraging technology and innovation
58 percent -- Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and homeland security
52 percent -- Mortgage and housing crisis
49 percent -- Social Security
45 percent -- Environmental policy
39 percent -- Reducing the deficit
37 percent -- Immigration
29 percent -- Increasing the proportion of taxes paid by the wealthy
28 percent -- Reducing waste in government
16 percent -- Tax relief for the middle class
15 percent -- Reducing capital gains tax
14 percent -- Extending unemployment insurance
13 percent -- Extending and strengthening the unemployment insurance system
13 percent -- Raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation
11 percent -- Reforming bankruptcy laws
9 percent -- Eliminating the estate tax

This is who they felt would do a better job with the highest ranked issues:



Here is the whole report which is in a Dibert-worthy PowerPoint presentation.

Ehrenreich Book a Pre-Election "Must Read"

For people who dispair that there is no one filling Molly Ivins Texas-sized boots, Barbara Ehrenreich's latest "This Land Is Their Land: Reports From a Divided Nation", a collection of essays, combines the wit of Ivins and facts and statistics to make a compelling case for why change is so essential in this election.

Ehrenreich, a frequent contributor to The Progressive and author of "Nickeled and Dimed" carves a needed niche between a pure frothing left and a pandering right in talking about issues that matter to many Americans. Each essay is a gem and Ehrenreich uses humor and facts to convey that the feces has seriously hit the fan for many in the working classes.

At under 250 pages, this should be required reading for voters as they weigh what's at stakes in November.

Statistics That Speak Volumes

Yes Magazine has this really great feature called "The Page That Counts" and has interesting statistics like these:

Percentage of major media stories about the 2008 presidential elections that focused on political, financial, and tactical aspects of the campaign: 63 %

Percentage that focused on the personal backgrounds of candidates: 17 %

Percentage that focused on the ideas and policy proposals of candidates: 15 %

Percentage that focused on records and past public performance of candidates: 1 %

Source:“The Invisible Primary—Invisible No Longer,” Project for Excellence in Journalism, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, October 29, 2007. http://journalism.org/node/8187

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on defense: 8,555

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on health care: 10,779

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on education: 17,687

Number of jobs created by spending $1 billion on mass transit: 19,795
Source:“The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities,” Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Dept of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 2007.http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/071001-jobcreation.pdf