The Economist recently conducted a survey of academic economists and produced some interesting findings about how people in the discipline are looking at various issues and candidate platforms.
Some interesting points:
Seven of ten rated Bush's first term economic policy as bad or very bad. About the same percentage also rated making the Bush tax cuts permanent bad or very bad. This is probably the issue that attracted the most criticism.
The economists generally thought that Kerry's policies were better vis-a-vis fiscal discipline and energy policy, but gave Bush an advantage on trade issues.
The respondents generally see the budget deficit and health care system as crucial issues, but dismiss outsourcing as a neglible problem.
This was taken from a random sample of referees from a leading journal in the field. Overall, the respondents seem to have fairly liberal politics, as 80% said that, were they to work in DC, they would prefer to work under a Kerry administration.
Link