Are we in for Bush vs. Carter, and what stocks would fare better under each?

Posted Jun 11th 2008 3:45PM by Sheldon Liber
Filed under: Rants and Raves, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Pfizer (PFE), Coca-Cola (KO), Exxon Mobil (XOM), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Adobe Systems (ADBE), Automatic Data Proc (ADP), Avon Products (AVP), Black and Decker (BDK), Chevron Corp (CVX), Costco Wholesale (COST), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Cardinal Health (CAH), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Politics, Suntech Power Hldgs ADS (STP), General Dynamics Corp (GD), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Raytheon Company (RTN)

For the first time Monday I heard John McCain comparing Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter. I had heard this before in other arenas, but not from McCain. I guess that despite these two presidential candidates pledging to the American people to bring change and resist politics as usual, they are both, as usual as one could get.

Obama is being shaped by the pressures of running for office and to believe otherwise is delusional. I suppose one has to have hope but the effects of the campaign are becoming clear. Obama has been painting McCain as an extension of Bush, which is nonsense, and now in a typical tit-for-tat response, McCain is filling the air with Carter references.

Both McCain and Obama are wrong in their assessments of their opponents and they are becoming commoners to resort to the bottom of the barrel campaign techniques used in every campaign for most of our nation's proud history. Obama gave up the high ground too easily and McCain has decided he can sling mud with the best of them.

Stick to the issues fellas, or neither one of you will have any credibility left to fight the inflation, sinking dollar, war, oil & food prices, federal deficit, trade imbalances, national infrastructure, health care and Social Security nightmares and a multitude of other issues one of you will be saddled with.

How will either affect stock prices. The market is full of assumptions. If McCain wins, the defense sector, energy, health care, financials and high yielding stocks are probably better bets. Some examples are:

If Obama wins, better bets might be alternative energy, high-tech, consumer staples, retail and non-dividend paying stocks (think taxes). Some examples are:

These are just a few stocks from among those that have been reviewed on BloggingStocks and not current recommendations. They are just meant to give a little flavor to what I sense as market sentiment, and to stimulate some discussion.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

Tags: ADBE, adobe systems, AdobeSystems, ADP, AVP, barack obama, BarackObama, BDK, CAH, COST, CSCO, GD, GS, john mccain, JohnMccain, JPM, KFT, KO, NOC, PFE, politics, presidential election, PresidentialElection, RTN, Sheldon Liber, SheldonLiber, STP, Suntech Power Hldgs ADS, SuntechPowerHldgsAds, XOM

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-11-2008 @ 4:04PM

Jeff said...

At least you tried to be bipartisan.

6-11-2008 @ 5:24PM

Sheldon said...

Thanks Jeff, I tried......and hope others will see it that way.

;-)

6-11-2008 @ 4:31PM

william lindblad said...

As you said, this is a standard approach. The truth is that neither knows how to solve this mess, although it does have elements of past errors - it is new and unique. It is also FAR from over. Something I knew in Dec. is only now starting to surface. Questions are arising regarding the financial status of the regional banks. The answer is yes, they are involved, but not in the sub prime mortgages to any extent. That sounds positive but it is misleading. They were in the small to medium multi-unit building up to their eyeballs. At least 50% of these projects are either in trouble or well on the way. This issue will become part of the campaign trail along with what already exists. Wait until Sept. and you will see some real heavy accusations.

6-11-2008 @ 7:36PM

winslow said...

I don't expect much from this coming election because America has lost her way. However, this election will not be a vile as the last one. The Bush campaign was terrible for ethics.

6-13-2008 @ 7:13AM

Sten said...

This is why I filter straight to Sheldon Liber's posts when I come to bloggingstocks.com.

Entertaining and informative articles, always with the financial market in mind on some level. His stock picks are better than most, backed by reasonable and well thought out analysis, without being too speculative. Finally, when he's political (rarely?), he's not teeth grindingly so. Bipartisan without secret agendas to skew and mislead (I'm looking at you, Peter).

Keep it up!