The Republican Presidential Recession Record

Here's the count. You decide.

Dwight Eisenhower: 2 recessions
Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford: 2 recessions
Ronald Reagan: 1 recession
George H.W. Bush: 1 recession
George W. Bush: 2 recessions

Here are the Democrats:

John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson: no recessions
Jimmy Carter: one recession, the briefest of the era
Bill Clinton: no recessions

Eight to one: As I say, you decide.

Comments

[speeddeeps]

And the big one of course the ..........­.....Great Depression by Herbert Hoover

[RobChattaTN]

and thanks to the main stream media for keeping this before the public!
yeah, right?
and who OWNS the mms???

nothing like having reality, ie. historic trends, show us reality...

too bad most americans seem to prefer to ignore reality
while we gobble up fantasy
created by capitalist crooks,
cooked up by paid-off "repug' enablers,
dished out by the media!

[GrizDave]

no surprise with georgie, never owned or operated a business in his life that wasn't worse when he left it than when he took over. How he ever got elected (well almost elected) twice is still unfathomable to me.

[JayInDallas]

Beautiful in its simplicity and succinctness. Well written. Says it all.

[schatsie]

and that list does not include the Depression....

[calluna]

It could also be the economic recessions run on a different timetables that our presidential administrations, and presidents­/congresse­s don't really have a hell of a lot of control over what the larger economy does, but whatever....

[JayInDallas]

It could be. It could also be that the idea of running a country like a corporation brings with it the inherent trappings of corruption, greed and shadiness. The GOP hasn't figured out how to make it work without getting caught in the glue trap. I'd be interested in the list of GOP vs Dem perp walkers over the same period of time.

[MiddleRoadLiberal]

It really couldn't. Not with those figures. The chance that nearly ninety percent of the time a recession just happens (without it being at least to some degree the fault of the current president/congress) to happen on Republican watch is kind of astronomical. The liklier scenario is that Republicans spend their entire time complaining that the government they control doesn't work that they forget to, um, govern and make it work.

[RTIII]

It's worse than even that: they say they don't believe in government, that it can't work, and when in office, they prove it.

Why voters hire politicians who are openly antagonistic against government and don't even believe it _can_ work to run it, I'll _never_ understand.
.

[BillZBubb]

Your post is the typical Republican rationalization of their failure. Too bad it is baloney. If you have any mathematic­al/analyti­cal background, read "The Presidential Puzzle: Political Cycles and the Stock Market" by Santa-Clara and Valkanov in the "Journal of Finance" October 2003.

They show clearly that Republican administrations are responsible for poor stock market (and by inference economic) performance. They show the results cannot be attributed to anything but failed economic policy by Republicans.

It is not surprising that Republican presidents fail since they are all believers in the myths of simplistic, 18th century, right wing economics.

[appleknocker]

Not to defend the GOP, but I think your "inference" linking the economy and the stock market may be invalid. They do not necessarily move in synch.

[tcagle]

They just can't keep from breaking the piggy bank, can they?