Robert S. McElvaine Quotes
Historically, a Democrat without business experience has been extraordinarily better for the economy and the stock market than a Republican who had a career in business. In the past 84 years, GDP has grown 7 percent per year under Democrats without business experience (FDR, JFK, LBJ, Clinton and Obama) and fallen by .2 percent under Republicans with business experience (Hoover and the 2 Bushes). The Dow has risen an average of 16.8 percent under Democrats without business experience and has fallen 3.7 percent per year under Republicans with business experience.
Ironically, the Republican Presidents who had no business experience did much better with the American economy—Nixon, Eisenhower, and Reagan than the Republican businessmen. And the one Democrat who was a successful businessman—Jimmy Carter—presided over a terrible economy. The key variable seems to be business experience which gives leaders a false sense of being able to control things more than is real and develops an empathy with a narrow slice of the electorate—other businessmen—who are much more interested in short term profits rather than the health of the economy as a whole.
Robert S. McElvaine, Historian, “Have businessmen made better presidents? Let’s look at the numbers”, The Washington Post, October 21, 2012
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is one of the worst economics assessments in the nation's history. Hoover had been a very successful business man prior to his government experience, but good business experience has not been a good predictor of Presidential success. See {633214} for more on this point.
After he went to West Point, Eisenhower was very non-political until Republican leaders invited him to run for the Presidency as a Republican.
Hope cracked this joke after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected for an unprecedented fourth term as president:
- Born: January 24, 1947
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Historian, Writer
Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts and Letters and Chair of the Department of History at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, where he has taught for thirty-five years. He is the author of seven books and the editor of three.
