Sour economy top issue in US presidential race

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US economy has become the number-one issue of November's fast-approaching presidential election, and whoever ends up controlling the White House will face pressing budget and fiscal challenges.

Some analysts say a flailing economy can benefit a challenger from the party that does not control the White House as voters can assign blame for an economic downturn to a president's party, as occurred in the 1992 failed reelection bid by then-president George Bush, President George W. Bush's father.

"When it comes to voting, unemployment doesn't matter. Inequality doesn't matter (in the United States). Growth of real after-tax income does matter. The stock market does matter," said Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a free-market...