Don't count on it. People had it far worse during the Depression. For four years of Roosevelt, things got worse and worse. Yet Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide, and then steered the economy to undreamt of depths over his second four years. So, after eight years of an accelerating downward economic spiral, what happened? The American people re-elected Roosevelt to the only presidential third term in history. FDR thrived on being a media darling, and the airwaves and print media saturated Americans with fawning descriptions of his brilliance. An entire generation still views him as the man who saved us from the Depression. Sound familiar?
Entirely possible, but what matters infinitely more than who wins in 2012 is, do we break the Democrats' control of Congress in 2010, with enough of a margin that we can consistently block most of their stupid, inane bills, or not? Think of it this way, 2012 is the icing on the cake, nice if you can get it, but not really necessary in order to have a cake. 2010, on the other hand, is the cake. Losing in 2010 (i.e., not breaking the Democrats' control) and winning in 2012 means the end of this country, period, end of discussion (absent an armed insurrection); losing in 2012 but winning in 2010 means that we still have a chance to peacefully restore this country to its original promise, and while it wouldn't be as neat as having a conservative in the Whitehouse, at least we would all get to enjoy watching a politically gelded Obama scream in impotent rage as we deny him all of the anti-American policies he intends to implement with the concurrence of his handmaidens in the Senate and House.
I, for one, would probably vote for Obama in 2012, given what appears to be the current slate of contenders against him, if we have managed to break the Democrats' control of the Congress with a sufficient margin in 2010. If we haven't succeeded in breaking their control in 2010, then I really won't be paying much attention to who's running for President in 2012 because I'll be too busy preparing for the socialist armageddon that will be coming down the pike shortly.