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The 2008 US Election and the Economy

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorFrancis Généreux
Published date01 March 2009
DOI10.1177/002070200906400107
Date01 March 2009
Subject MatterThe 2008 US Election—Challenges for a New President
Francis Généreux
The 2008 US election
and the economy
Legacy, issues, and consequences
| International Journal | Winter 2008-09 | 95 |
Economic issues took centre stage during the 2008 presidential campaign.
The deterioration of the economy and the deepening financial crisis pushed
voters’ concerns for their jobs and personal finances to the forefront of the
election campaign. Barack Obama benefited from the economic downturn to
win the White House by criticizing George W. Bush’s record and economic
policies, by emphasizing the need for a decisive plan to kick-start the
economy, and by adopting a moderate and confident attitude in these difficult
times. To understand why the economy was so central to this campaign, we
have to answer the following questions. How can we a ssess the Bush
administration’s economic record? Was it as bad as the voters’ reaction seems
to indicate? And what is Obama’s plan for the economy? Will he be able to
turn things around?
Francis Généreux is a senior economist in the economic studies division of the Mouvement
Desjardins. With François Dupuis and Yves St-Maurice, he has published a detailed study
of the presidential campaign’s economic issues, published in October 2008,“The November
4th election and the US economy,” from which most of the figures cited in this article were
drawn. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of
the Mouvement Desjardins.

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