Tom Foreman
360 CorrespondentIt's snowing outside my office a few blocks from the Capitol. Big heavy flakes are swirling and I'm thinking about a chilly word: Recession. That's what most of you think we are in now, and trust me, the mere thought of it is sending shivers up the spines of the
presidential candidates.
Months ago on AC 360 I was pounding the drum with reports saying that the economy would eventually trump the war as the big issue of this election, and trust me, when all the political experts were ignoring me, I felt like my world was a little icy. But now it has happened.
The continuing slide of the housing market, the crumbling of new housing starts, job worries, health insurance fears, the immigration debate; an avalanche of economic terrors are descending on this election.
And like snowboarders in the backcountry, the candidates are all scrambling to stake out positions before the full force of the deluge hits.
To be fair, all of them had economic positions before the polls shifted this way, and they talked about their ideas a fair amount. But now they are looking into the eyes of thousands of scared voters who are beginning to scrutinize the campaigns' economic plans much more closely.
I've never been convinced that presidents control the economy nearly as much as they think they do. I think they are like little kids standing at a video machine that they've put no money into: because the space ship sometimes goes the way they are pointing, they think they are controlling it.
Still, the president does play a role. So here is the question: What, if anything, do you think the next president should do to reverse what most Americans now believe is already a recession?
