Are Democrats better with the economy?

I posted the following comments to a message board on September 14, 2008:

I hope there are people on here who understand economics fairly well. I actually have a bachelor's degree in it, but haven't worked in the field, so I only have a basic understanding. I have come to the conclusion that Libertarians are too isolationist, Republicans try to impose too many restrictions and Democrats want to constantly raise spending and the size of government.

I read an article by Princeton economist Alan Blinder. He was former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and advised John Kerry during the 2004 election. He says since 1948 the economy has grown faster when the President is a Democrat. He also says that income inequality is closer when Democrats are in charge. I don't think income inequality is a bad thing as long as most people are able to raise their own income. I didn't really understand the discussion on the income rise at the percentile level. It says at the 20th percentile, 80% of people had higher incomes. So at the 95 percentile did only 5% of people earn higher incomes? Anyways it shows a chart and says incomes grew higher under Democrats, but was it at the expense of the majority of the rest of people?

My main issue with this article is that it would be better to see which policies led to growth. I'm sure even members of the same party pursued different policies. One of my professors said the President has little impact on the economy and the author even mentions that. I would like to see a comparison to which party held the majority in Congress during these years. It would also be interesting to see other measures of the economy such as job growth. I read an article a while back by Paul Krugman arguing that Obama would be better at creating jobs. It seems to me his policies would lose jobs. I really do not understand liberal economists who think bigger government is better.

Glenn Beck did an editorial saying that the 10 poorest cities have been run by Democrats for most of the past century. One of commentators mentioned Forbes' 2005 list of the ten U.S. cities with the highest median incomes. Only two of them had current Republican mayors. Of course Beck went beyond just current leaders, but the historical pattern.