If politicians were traded daily like a stock, which company would best describe them? That’s one perspective Slate, an online magazine, has brought to its coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. If Democratic candidate Barack Obama were a stock, why, he’d be the common stock of an alternative-energy sector company. Although Obama’s “national market share still lags behind legacy systems,” he’s a “strong buy,” since he “attracts hot money, media attention galore and younger consumers.”
The junior senator from New York, Hillary Clinton, is the financial avatar of Citigroup, a company that is rated a “hold” for now. Slate reckons that both Hillary, the candidate, and shares of Citi are running on the glow of past performances from the 1990s. Hillary, like Citi, is a “well-capitalized, longstanding market leader” who is having “difficulty reclaiming past glory.” (Read more of Slate's recommendations.)
Meanwhile on the Republican side, Rudy Giuliani and Bear Stearns share the same “sell recommendation.” Not only do the former New York City mayor and Bear Sterns CEO James Cayne have “flawed investment strategies—blowing off Iowa and New Hampshire for Rudy, subprime all the time for Bear Stearns”—but Slate points out, both have a penchant for naughtiness: Cayne allegedly smokes the wacky weed, according to the Wall Street Journal, and Giuliani is on his third wife.