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The anonymous coward at the Angry Bear blog who calls himself only PGL thinks I'm betraying myself when, in my bull/bear debate with Barry Ritholtz, I said that 4Q 2006 overall real GDP growth of 2.5% was "ho hum" while 3.7% growth ex-housing was "spectacular." Here's the critique:

The average real GDP growth rate has averaged [sic] about 2.5% [under Bush] or as Luskin said was ?ho-hum?. Real GDP growth during the Clinton Administration averaged 3.7%, which Luskin said represented ?spectacular results?.

Sigh... and snore... these Leftists will seize on the most innocent comments to try to trash Bush and beatify Clinton. Never mind the structural differences in the economy that may facilitate different growth rates in different periods (for example, the Fed is constantly revising its idea of "potential growth" based on many factors over which a president has no control, such as demographics). Even within the mentally limited terms of PGL's president-centric analysis, PGL ignores that the economy under Bush had to spend the first couple years digging out from under the aftermath of the loony and corrupt Clinton years -- burst dotcom bubble, corporate scandals, and so on. Once the clean-up was done and the Bush program kicked into place after the massive tax cuts in the second quarter of 2003, real GDP has averaged 3.5%.

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