GDP, Retail Sales, Income, CPI, Jobs Under Past 5 Presidents

Presidents are at least partially judged, rightly or wrongly, by how well the economy performs under their tenure.

Here's a look at how the past 12 presidents look according to five of the most important economic indicators - GDP,

GDP

The first indicator is the sum of all final production and consumption, or GDP.

This measure makes presidents Clinton (+35%), Reagan (+31%), Eisenhower (+20%), Kennedy (+23%), and Johnson (+21%) look good.

In contrast, presidents Obama (+10%), Ford (+8%), Bush I (+9%), Carter (+14%), and Nixon (+13%) look quite poor.

The Bush II year are somewhat a Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde story.  Growth was strong during the first seven years of his presidency, peaking at about 20% during the 82^nd month. Then the housing market bubble burst.

Whether to classify Bush...