Vote! Election Day! Vote!

Today is the day! Get out and Vote! With so much talk about which candidate will be better for the economy and business lets take a moment to review the history of the stock market during election years. If history is any guide, the 2008 national elections won’t provide the kindling for a major stock market boom.
Since 1949 -- the first year of Democrat Harry S. Truman’s only elected term -- the best possible political outcome in Washington for investors of stocks has been a Democratic president and a Republican Congress.
During these eras the Dow Jones industrial average has posted average annual gains of 19.5%, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. That compares with an average annual gain of 8.7% for the entire 1949-2007 period.
In other words, Wall Street historically has liked that particular form of political gridlock, with two competing parties pushing against each other. The problem for investors is that the chances for such an outcome are slim this year. The political alignment with the second-best stock market record since ‘49 — is a Republican president paired with Republican control of the House and Senate, which yielded a 14.1% average annual Dow gain. That probably isn’t in the cards either since the Democrats out number Republicans in congress. Its important to note that
since 1949 there hasn’t been a scenario where a Democratic lived in the White House while control of Congress was split between the Democrats and the GOP, so there’s no track record to go by there.
The most likely scenarios of this year's election are not looking great for the stock market. In the past when a Republican president ruled with either a Democrat-controlled or split Congress, the Dow notched average annual gains of 6.7%. And the set-up of a Democratic president and Democrat-controlled Congress fared the worst of the six possible combinations, although only slightly, with a 6.6% average annual gain in the Dow.
But who says any of that matters anyway. I feel that unless there is a big change in the leadership of this country that the stock market will be the least of our worries. Go Obama!