By Daniel Johnson, Sports Editor

Michael Barone admitted he was expecting to give his thoughts on the 2008 presidential election with clear leaders on both sides of the isle, but the uncertainty of the election didn’t stop Barone from sharing his perspective on the race to the White House.

Barone, a published author, frequent commentator on Fox News and senior writer for U.S. News and World and Report, discussed the 2008 presidential race and the economy at the annual Economic Outlook Luncheon on Monday in the Teague Special Events Center. Although the speech was slated to focus on the economy and the election, a room full of students, faculty, administrators, local businessmen and local legislators mostly heard Barone give his analysis on the fight for the executive.

“My sense over the last two years is that we’ve moved from one period of politics to another,” Barone said.

He continued to explain that the shift of the country’s political focus went from a “trench warfare” form of politics, where the parties and politicians “were like two armies in a culture war,” to an “open field” form of politics, where voters broke ranks and were open to “other possibilities” in the political arena. And Barone said the shift was evident in the current presidential race.

“The politicians are moving around, [and] the voters are moving around,” Barone said.

He noted the leadership change in 2006 from the Republicans to the Democrats and the movement away from President George W. Bush, “the central figure of our politics from 2000-
2007,” as examples of the political shift.

Barone said Sen. John McCain’s unlikely rise from bankruptcy to the frontrunner in the presidential race could be attributed to the national news cycle during the first month, when his policies seemed to be most appealing.

“McCain waited and amazingly enough it seemed to work,” Barone said.

During a press conference after the speech Monday, Barone said the economy was the main issue most voters cared about right now, and the presumed Republican nominee’s inexperience on that issue could be troublesome.

“You’ve got to do more than smile and say you really don’t know that much about the economy,” Barone said.

On the other side of the isle, Barone, like most of the national media, was uncertain on who would win the nomination and speculated that the decision between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton could come down to the 796 super delegates of the Democratic party.

When Barone shifted the focus to the economy, he played down the media coverage of the economy and said he sees “quite a different picture in West Texas.”

Ray Ferguson, former chairman of the Development Corporation of Abilene, gave a report on the local economy and declared that despite the downturn and national media coverage of an impending economic crisis, the Big Country’s economy seemed to be doing just fine.

“We’re due for a downturn, but I think locally, we’re better prepared to handle a downturn,” Ferguson said. “People feel pretty good about things here locally.”

Ferguson conceded that his analysis was not empirical, but based on conversations with local businessman, who he said claimed successful years in 2007.

Dr. Gary McCaleb, vice president of the university and emcee for the event, said Barone’s presence at ACU at the luncheon was an interesting insight outside of his published work and commentary on television.

“You only get to hear little snipits when he’s on TV,” McCaleb said. “It was nice to let him expand and extend on his views.”