Some people think Hillary Clinton has the brightest prospects, due to high profile. Some people think John Edwards can win by making himself 'the last of the liberals'. My way of thinking sharply differs. The 'economy', such as it is, will sink like an island off Louisiana sometime between now and November of 2008.

Our glorious 'Iraq War', such as it is, which the public now perceives as a slightly overripe dead fish, will instigate not just mass protest, but open vomiting in the streets. Any Congresspeople who voted to authorize Bush starting our ruinous Iraq 'war', such as the two named above, will be politically dead in the water. Like belly-up dead. I predict the next Democratic candidate will have to be former General Wesley Clark. The public will need a general to lead us out of the chaos.

And things are not looking at all good on other fronts. For example, the super-rich are all suddenly investing in fallout shelters. Cheney has infuriated his Greenwich, Connecticut neighbors by blasting day and night deep into the earth. And he has done the very same thing to his DC neighbors too. And people fail to grasp that the Russians merely scrapped their oldest, most unreliable weapon systems during the so-called 'collapse of communism'. The mainstream media matrix failed to mention that it was capitalism that collapsed when the 'Globalists' (how many of them live on your street?) sold the entire U.S. of A. to these still very communist nations. Russia is grabbing up all the oil, and China is now buying up the last of the machine tools. They just bought the Bank of America (Asia) Ltd -- all of it!

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-1 2/30/content_5551072.htm

If Bush, Cheney, the entire supreme court, and everyone else connected to our national deconstruction-in-progress is not impeached instantly (rather than being handed 160 billion more dollars for war in April), people like Clinton and Edwards will not even physically survive to be spat upon for starting this fiasco by November of 2008. If they foolishly allow the Cheney sharpshooters to remain in the white house, or their treasonous cronies to remain sitting in the supreme court, they themselves will suddenly discover that they are perched on the upper floors of the WTC -- and the elevators will suddenly not be in service. So let's clue them in.

They cannot afford to sit and wait for an 'accidental' war with Iran to trigger WWIII. That particular outcome would be extremely bad for business.

Economy is likely to do OK in 2007 for a couple macro reasons.  Mainly that Japan is out of recession and China is booming, Europe is breaking even and a large portion of developing nation's economies are showing positive GDP growth.

This bodes well for world economy in the short term over the next 2 years.

Democrats would be better to prepare to campaign based on a modest GDP growth in US economy.

Economic issues for 2008 are deficit/debt, trade deficit, US industry and job losses, economic inequality, energy/oil usage.

The economy will not to do great but there will be not be crash on the scale of 1929. As for this being soley Bush's fault, I would agrue that the blame can go around and around. For example, is bush to blame for a slowing housing market. Or should we blame bush for the negative effects of globalizations. I think not. The economy is too complex for the government to have a overarching impact on. However, extreme Fed Debt(think Iraq War) obviously has a negative effect on the economy. But, I personally do not believe that the government can do much more than tweak the economyy.

That said, the Dems have an opportunity to create a much better economic enviorment. They are as follows:
1)Universal Health Care; this is the biggest issue of our time and our current health care system will destroy our economy. We must give everyone health care!!
2)Defense Spending, cut it big, and get rid of the Iraq war for gods sake
2) Tax cuts, mainly stop giving money to huge (oil) companies while also giving the middle class a break
4)Reform Sarbanes Oxley. This is an issue that I am sure most people disagree with me on. But, like it or not this law is really hurting small busniess. Moreover, it is having a negative effect on IPO's, and a lot of companies that would have previously listed on the NYSE are now going overseas. The law needs to remain but it must be changed.

There are plenty of more things that should be done, but I think that these are the top 4.

Deflation is a state of mind.  You stop buying because you think prices are going down.

If you have leveraged your purchase to the hilt and have been burned badly, then you really and truly think about not buying.

Why can't the government print money to get us out of any deflationary trap?

A) It doesn't work (cf. Japan).

B) They've already printed the money.  It's in China.

I pray, I sincerely pray, that the economy does great in 2007.  But if it doesn't it's Bush's fault.

If Clinton were still President, our prosperity would be his fault.

I would add that it is no accident that Bush is talking about balancing the budget.

He is trying to control the discussion of the economy as it tanks.

He knows that he is incredibly vulnerable on the economy and that it is cratering.

It's like Iraq, he's looking for a way to make himself look good.

At our expense.  As always.