In 2008, by a landslide, the democrats will win. This is well established. What will happen then will be unfortunate, however. I believe people are gonna be too open and enthusiastic about the small s socialist policy changes and as a result economic freedom will dwindle based on flawed keynesian economic thought and the tainted name of neoconservatism (which is socialism in itself in some respects) being represented as conservativism and thus resulting in a lack of old school conservatism that could actually dictate the race.
Now, as for my comparison to the new deal: While it is true that the keynesian ideas for response to recession/depression might work faster than old school capitalism, as such what it really does is seem to break the economy even more, while fixing a few spots here and there. Ultimately, in my opinion, the new deal was an improper response. It was not the gold standard OR capitalism that failed. Rather, it was the progressive movements insistence on stupid laws combined with deprioritizing use of the federal reserve assuming the new york bank crashing was going to be a local recession for only a few months.