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The Fear Factor
...many voters... are now becoming fearful that an Obama administration might bring not only change, but drastic change.

Fear is driving the presidential election of 2008. Since the economic meltdown in early October, Barack Obama's poll numbers have steadily risen as millions of Americans are afraid of losing their investments. They fear the federal government has lost control of the financial marketplace and are looking for a white knight to turn the situation around.

That fear is well founded, as the Bush administration has allowed speculators to run wild in the stock and commodities markets. This column stated last spring that oil speculators were artificially driving up prices and the oil companies were taking advantage of the situation by raising prices based upon "futures contracts," not supply and demand. Naysayers criticized me, but when the speculators pulled out, oil prices cratered. The entire gas price deal was a scam and the folks got hurt.

Continue reading the full column...

Here are some of the highlights you can look forward to on upcoming installments* of The Radio Factor and The O'Reilly Factor:

• Analyst Frank Luntz will join us to review the best and worst moments in both the McCain and Obama campaigns...
• Republican celebrities Janine Turner and Victoria Jackson will enter the No Spin Zone to talk about why they are supporting John McCain...
• We'll have the best political analysis on the air the day after the election, featuring Karl Rove, Howard Wolfson, Dennis Kucinich, Dick Morris and more...

* Lineups and schedules are always subject to change based on breaking news.

This week in the Stratfor.com Intelligence Briefing we're highlighting Stratfor's Fourth Quarter Forecast for 2008, which reviews the year so far and makes a number of predictions for the remainder of the year and beyond. It's free, so check it out!

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