Do you think at least some corporations are holding back on hiring in order to hurt Obama because they want another Republican in office?

Not really. They're dumping on Obama because their CEOs want to keep getting the huge low-tax bonuses generated by offshoring. Cheap labour isn't the only factor. Consider the reduced management duties required by importing finished goods as opposed to having to manufacture those goods. All they care about is their profits and share price. Had Bush increased taxes to pay for USian wars he'd have been the target. There is no loyalty among these people - not to country, not to employees, not to friends, not to family, not to anything.

Their only loyalty is to their shareholders (themselves). IOW... I don't think it's a conspiracy - I think it's just greed.

Sooz... Your post brings to mind something a friend in the computer/network business told me. He's finding that even his biggest clients - over 250 desktop machines fully integrated into their own server network - they aren't replacing software or hardware if the stuff they have works. The way he put it was, if you typed up a document in Word 2003 and did the same with Word 2010 and printed them, the results are the same, so why change what works? He's also seeing the same clients reducing their desktop stations as machines "die" and reducing personel the same way... attrition.