Hi. My name is Mike Kimel. I'm an economist at Analytic Economics. Together with a co-author, I'm working on a book called "Presidential Performance: How Presidents from Ike to GW */_Really_/* Did on Issues That Matter to Americans." There are a lot of things that matter to Americans, things like abortion, crime, deficits, and education. Some say Reagan produced the fastest growth, or the biggest debt, others say it was Clinton. But for the most part, these often widely held and contradictory opinions are wrong. We take a look at what actually happened (and why) by looking the data on over 40 different series people care about from Ike's term to the present. We use colorful graphs and a bit of humor, and we stick to the facts. We rank each president on a variety of issues. At the end of the book, we give you an overall ranking based on how each President did on all the issues we look at. Results will be surprising to many people. They will also be contentious. But most importantly, they are based entirely on objective data.

Right now, we're finishing up the book. But if you're like us, you care about the facts, and you want to know what happened because you think it will help you decide how to vote. So maybe you want a sneak peak. We'll start releasing more information about our project at this site.

And maybe you want to do more than just get informed. Maybe you want to inform others, and influence their votes. Maybe you're a bit of a political wonk. Well, we have something for you there too. We've put some of the graphs that will appear in the book on t-shirts and other stuff you can buy at Cafe Press . Check it out.