Michael Kinsley crunches some numbers and comes to the conclusion that Democrats in the White House are always better for the nation's economy than Republicans in the White House. In fact, Democrats are even better at achieving what most Republicans say they want the economy to be like. One excerpt from his conclusions…
On average, in years when the president is a Democrat, the economy grows faster; inflation is lower; fewer people can't find a job; the federal government spends a smaller share of GDP, whether or not you include defense spending; and the deficit is lower (or — sweet Clinton-years memory — the surplus is higher). The one category that Republicans win is, unsurprisingly, federal taxes as a share of GDP. But it is no trick to lower taxes if you don't lower spending.
I'm sure there are other ways to parse the numbers that don't yield this realization…but this is a pretty straightforward recitation of the stats. I would also caution that whenever people say that Republicans do this or Democrats do that, I always assume they mean "most" Republicans and "most" Democrats. Surely there are deviants or incompetents in both factions. Still, isn't this an interesting article?