Can Obama Spare Some Hope for Investors?

I agree with Doug Kass that a big Obama/Democratic victory next week will be very good for the stock market -- it would be like replacing Ken Lay with Warren Buffett as CEO!

I look toward a different (and more salutary) market outcome than is generally expected following a Democratic win. In essence, there could now be such broad-based dissatisfaction with the current lack of leadership and poor decisions by the Bush Administration that investors could greet a Democratic win as setting a new stage of leadership capable of reversing the current view that U.S. economic and political preeminence is on the decline. Decisive, creative and coherent moves by a newly elected Democratic Administration could further engage investors in 2009.

In summary, a Democratic victory will underscore the seriousness of the economic challenges (both here and abroad) and I expect investors, perhaps surprisingly, to respond in kind -- with optimism.

---------------------

Can Obama Spare Some Hope for Investors?
10/27/2008 7:35 AM EDT

Voters are now clamoring for change. The scope of our country's financial problems will likely result in a Democratic Tsunami next week. And the stock market may greet this outcome positively.

"Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation's future truly hangs in the balance."

-- New York Times, Oct. 23, 2008

As indicated in RealClearPolitics, Senator Obama appears well on his way to a comfortable win over Senator McCain. Moreover, large Democratic gains (even a filibuster-proof majority of 60seats) in the Senate and material House gains seem inevitable, providing a likely exclamation point in the November 2008 election.

Not surprisingly, the recent widening of the Democratic lead has coincided with the depth of our nation's economic problems over the last two months.

Voters are now clamoring for change. They are mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore.