What it boils down to is that the government can't do a lot to make an economy grow, but it can do a lot to screw it up. The obvious conclusion is that the government can aid the economy best by staying out of its way as much as possible.

I tend to support Republicans over Democrats, because by and large, they tend to feel the government should be small and stay out of the way of the economy, while Democrats, by and large, believe that the government has a large, or even an exclusive role in managing economic activity. The latter is like trying to "manage" a rain forest without killing it, but there it is.

That being said, I am not that happy with the Republican performance in "staying out of the way." Bush has done a number of things that I did not like, such as steel tariffs (since corrected), failing to reign in government spending, restoring farm price supports, and supporting further federalization of education.

On the other hand, he also cut taxes and supports continuing tax cuts. And he is still much better than the current crop of Democratic leaders who are more socialist than anything else.

If Clinton had one virtue, it's that, after the aborted attempt to nationalize health care, he seemed largely to stay out of the way of the economy. I'm not sure why. He even gets a plus point or two, such as his support of free trade agreements. (Some cynics suggest he was kept too busy defending himself to develop any grand governmental ambitions.) King Log, if you will. His wife, on the other hand, has a lot of King Stork tendencies, and I would really not like to see her gain the presidency.

BTW, if you look back at Clinton's first term, it wasn't okay economically, but not that hot. The unemployment rate didn't fall below 6 percent until September of 1994, and was still at 5.4 percent when Clinton was re-elected. Through his entire first year, the lowest unemployment rate was 6.5 percent. Of course, his second term has much better numbers, with the rate going as low as 3.8 percent in April of 2000.

The highest unemployment rate during Bush's entire term has been 6.3 percent. The unemployment rate during Clinton's first term did not fall below that point until May of 1994.