Source: Intrade.com
Things don’t look so good for President Obama’s chances in November 2012. According to Intrade.com, a site that makes prediction markets for hundreds of real-world events, investors believe that Obama currently has a 47% chance of being re-elected in 2012. This number marks a steady progression down from a peak of ~70% in May.
Why should one care about this outcome? It turns out that people are investing real money on these events. And people tend to be more thoughtful about their decision-making when being wrong means losing money.
Here’s how it works. If I believe Obama will be re-elected in 2012, I can buy 1 share for $4.70, which is 10 times the implied market probability that he will be re-elected. If he wins, my profit is $10.00 minus $4.70. If I am wrong, my profit is a negative $4.70.
Alternatively, I can short the outcome that President Obama is re-elected. If he loses, I gain a $4.70 profit. If he wins, I lose $5.30.
It seems the “smart money” is currently betting against Obama.
Reflections of a Rational Republican 
Someone – Ezra Klein? – wrote this week about a study of the impact of econommy on incumbent presidents. Good economy? They get reelected. Bad economy? Not so much.
It may be out of the hands of any campaign.
I completely agree. The dismal economy is ultimately what did George Bush senior in, and the Clinton campaign capitalized on it brilliantly. Remember “It’s the economy, stupid”?
Yup. Always was, still is, and always will be. Unless Romen is NOT the candidate. Then all bets are off.
I totally agree.
For Obama the good news is a weak Republican field, likely a very large warchest (he’s raised well over $100 million already), and the fact that the election is over a year away and that’s an eternity in politics. For the Republicans the best hope I think is that a truly electable candidate like Romney avoids getting caught in a bloody, costly primary. Obama proved that you can do that and still win, but McCain’s weak campaign helped cause that.
I had always thought his war chest was approaching something crazy like $1 billion. Now I am more optimistic. I also agree that Romney is the best chance for Republicans.
I think $1 billion will be the likely final toll, this is just through Q3 2011 (I suspect their total take so far may be well over $150 million actually). The big money will be collected next year. It’s a bit crazy how much money goes into a Presidential campaign now. Obama will almost certainly beat the $745 million he raised in 2008 (he spent $730 million — $15 million left over!).
Got it. I knew that number was in my head for some reason. The cost of these political campaigns is an outrage. It seems to me to be a massive waste of money.
I think the Obama campaign has actually announced they intend to raise a billion and I’d expect Romney to come close. This whole thing is moving through the looking glass. It’s certainly increasingly undemocratic.
It’s all nuts.
Reading “The Selling of the President” about the Nixon campaign of 1968 looks so innocent and naive compared to what has come since then!
Scott, I just pulled that book out of my shelves (dusty!) to re-read, or at least skim!
Those were the days when voter fraud was real. The States rewriting their voter eligibility laws today are claiminng it’s to protect against fraud, but that’s something of a fake because there is a neglibible amount of voting fraud going on. We’ve got much better controls now – but the 1960’s? Oh boy . ..
True. Here we have a Republican Secretary of State sending out letters to college students telling them that if their car is registered out of state they should immediately invalidate their registration to vote in Maine. There is nothing in the law that requires that, it’s simply that they think college students will vote Democratic. This has angered even College Republicans. The state GOP leader made a grand claim that he had evidence of over 200 cases of voter fraud — which turned out to be a list of 200 out of state students who registered in Maine, including both Democrats and Republicans. Then he said these would be “investigated.” Clear efforts at scaring students not to vote. I think this may end up having a backlash that hurts rather than helps their cause.
I hope so. Here in FL, all the new legislation has thrown up so many barriers that even the League of Women Voters has said they would no longer do voter registration drives (as they’ve done for 75 or so years) because it could expose their volunteers to criminal liability.
Looks like another book I should add to my ever-increasing book backlog…