My prediction: a landslide for Obama. I expect him to win 40 states, probably get a 55-45 popular vote, and waltz forward with the cheers of the media and Hollywood. He’s explained to everyone that the economic crisis is the result of the “failed economic policies of the Bush Administration”. Saturday Night Live notwithstanding (they actually did a skit about the Dems thinking no one noticed they’re to blame) most of the voters will find this explanation believable, because they’ve been told Bush is an idiot for 8 years, and Cheney’s evil, just evil. The Republican explanation for what happened is longer, involves pointing out that much of the problem was caused by minority homebuyers who shouldn’t have qualified for loans in the first place, and is more complex. The minority homebuyer thing is almost guaranteed to generate accusations of racism. People *want* to believe this is Bush’s fault, because he’ll be gone next January, and because they don’t want to think that this *isn’t* the fault of the banks and institutions that lend people money for houses. It’s also been pointed out that Barney Frank, a long-time defender of the “affordable housing” fad, was living with the guy at Fannie Mae who was in charge of inventing creative financing for these new homebuyers. No one wants to say anything about *that* for fear of being accused of homophobia. You might get accused of homophobia, racism, etc., if you point out that the Democrats are responsible for this. If Obama vaguely accuses Bush, he instead doesn’t get accused of anything, because no one will complain about him accusing Bush of doing something he didn’t do, and no one will accuse him of anything else, either.