Without getting too political I find it interesting that in 6 presidential terms (1969-1993) there were 5 Republican presidential terms and 1 Democratic term. So when we look at this 24 year period and want to afix economic blame we can single out the 4 years of a presidential term and blame him if that fits our political views.

I remember very high inflation during Carter but I also remember the WIN buttons (Whip Inflation Now) that Ford introduced that shows the problem was pre-Carter. And I remember the huge slowdown in RR business in the early 80's--Reagan years. But really does a president really make or break an economy? I don't think the president has nearly that much influence over the economy. And remember that often the president is resisted by an opposing Congress.

I guess I could make the argument that Democrats are good for RR employment because I began my RR career shortly after Carter's inauguration. I'm sure he caused that. But I got married during Reagan's reign so maybe he really was strong on family values. But wait, I got divorced during Bush and remarried during Clinton and divorced during Bush2 and remarried during Obama. (Doesn't look good for me if Jeb gets elected.)

So let's blame Amtrak on Nixon and the loss of domes on Carter. And of course we have to blame the first oil crisis on Carter which led to the early demise of SD45s.