Like Higher Stock Prices? You Should Love Democrats!

At Business Week yesterday, Joshua Green made this unconventional but salient point, supported by a rather fascinating chart:

Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly peaked above 13,000 before dipping at the close. Like all Dow milestones, this one touched off the usual celebration. It may be no coincidence that the market is rising under a Democratic president. In a Bloomberg Government article out this morning, Bob Drummond examines the historical record and finds that the stock market (the S&P 500, in this case) performs much, much better under Democrats than Republicans.