UPI: Election 2002: Sogginess vs. crunch

To borrow from a famous 1988 essay in The Economist, it's the crunch of the Bush-Cheney verbal assaults against Saddam Hussein versus the muted, even soggy rhetoric of Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt on the Bush economic record.

A decade ago, James Carville rose to fame and much fortune as Bill Clinton's campaign manager in the 1992. Pioneering the slogan, "it's the economy stupid!" Clinton capitalized on the stagnant economy of the early 90s to oust the first President Bush. If this year's crop of Democratic candidates can't win even a 2 percent gain with rising unemployment and a stock market mini-crash to help them, the Democratic National Committee should rehire Carville.