By: Dave Astor "Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams commissioned a survey of more than 500 economists to find out who they thought would be the best president for the economy, and Barack Obama beat John McCain handily.
Adams did note that "most economists are ... registered as either Democrats or independents," and that those surveyed included 48% Democrats, 17% Republicans, and 27% independents. So the results partly reflect that skew.
Overall, 59% of the economists said Obama would be best for the economy, while 31% said McCain would be.
The economists thought Obama would do better in 11 categories: education (59% for the Democrat and 14% for McCain), health care (65%-20%), energy (61%-22%), encouraging technology/innovation (43%-23%), wars/homeland security (58%-30%), mortgage/housing crisis (41%-18%), Social Security (40%-24%), environmental policy (72%-9%), reducing the deficit (37%-29%), immigration (33%-29%), and increasing taxes on the wealthy (79-14%).
McCain's only two winning categories were international trade (51% for the Republican and 26% for Obama) and reducing waste in government (38%-16%).
Not surprisingly, 80% of the GOP economists tended to favor McCain and 88% of the Democratic ones thought Obama would be best for the economy. Independents leaned toward Obama by a 46%-39% margin.
Why did Adams do the survey? "I found myself wishing someone would give voters useful and unbiased information about which candidate has the best plans for the economy," said the cartoonist in a statement. "Then I realized that I am someone, which is both inconvenient and expensive.?
To read more about the survey, see Adams' blog
here.
The "Dilbert" comic runs in more than 2,000 newspapers via United Media.
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