Economists Dig Obama

We're still having a kerfuffle in the comments over whether 95% of Americans will get a tax cut, won't see a tax increase, or will end up flat busted by all the tax increases the Bush economic collapse and retiring baby boomers will necessitate. Any economic promises made by either candidate this year may be moot in the face of whatever happens with the mortgage bailout.

But as it stands right now, economists give Obama the edge—a big edge—on ability to deal with whatever excitement the economy may throw at us in the next four years. The Economist, that venerable and conservative (in a good way) publication from the U.K., finds 80% of economists they surveyed believe Obama has a better grasp of economics and would pick a better economic team than McCain.

I know, those darn eggheads probably skew liberal, right? Indeed, the economists surveyed skew Dem: 46% in this survey run with the Donkeys, while only 10% fly the Elephant flag. But given a choice of which Administration to work for, even a third of those Republicans responding said they'd still rather work for Obama or were undecided. Not one of the Dems said they'd rather work for McCain; the unaffiliateds would prefer calling Obama boss rather than McCain 58%–14%.

You may be thinking, 'Who needs a bunch of eggheads telling us how to vote, anyway?" Well, put that anti-intellectualism aside for just a moment and think about the economic news this year. How many times have you listened to the reports on the collapses and bailouts and had to ask yourself, "How's that bailout going to work? How does a liquidity crisis affect my paycheck? What the heck are credit default swaps?" We and our next President face complicated problems; we could probably use some smart people to solve them.

And as The Economist reports, the smart people on economics tend to say Barack Obama is the better choice to deal with economic problems.