Remember a year ago when there were many Dem candidates and almost as many Repubs?  After a lengthy battle sometimes bitter on both sides, we are down to the Big Two, McCain and Obama.  In the beginning it was the war in Iraq and healthcare  The biggest,  most popular anti-war person became the Dem nominee and the biggest pro-war became the one for the Repubs.  Those were the good old days, eh?

Now just consider if this economic crisis had happened in January of 08.  If it had we would mostly likely be looking at two different candidates.  On the Repubs side it would probably be Mitt or Huckabee.  Why?  Mitt definitely has the upper hand on the economy and could have made his case when people would have been listening.  Then there was Huckabee with his conservative populism would also be in play today.

The Dems would most likely have Chris Dodd, simply because of his vast knowledge of the economy, it would have made him the more attractive of the Dems.  Also Hillary would probably be in the mix, simply because of her closeness to the Clinton years of good economic news.  And with the crisis facing the US, Edwards would have been the most likely to get the nod, his populism was playing well and would be very pertinent today.

McCain and Obama both would not have had the chops for the economic conversation.

What a diffrence a year makes.