Quoting from a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research,
the new November issue of the (smartly redesigned)
Atlantic offers
(scroll down) as good an explanation as any as to why an Obama
could be winning in this time of troubles:
People living under the yoke of corrupt governments tend to want … more government regulation. It’s a vicious cycle: in trusting societies, people act civilly and expect less government interference. In distrustful societies, people act selfishly and expect tighter regulation. But more government corruption leads to less-trusting societies, and citizens will generally “prefer state control to unbridled production by uncivil firms”—even when they know their leaders are crooked.