On Medved, a leftist asserts that one of the only money-makers of these past years have been the pharmaceutical industry -- the theory being, of course, that Bush is somehow doing something to make them wealthy.

So, of course, I thought that'd be an interesting assertion to look up. So I discovered the "PPH" which is an index of pharmaceutical stocks, and thus reflects the profitability of the industry as whole.

And, well, what do you know, it's plummeted 30-40 points (over 30%!) since Bush was sworn in in January, 2001:

"Okay," I thought, "but perhaps the whole economy has plummed a bit, and pharma did relatively better?"

So I called up a comparison of the pharma industry versus the Dow Jones average, too. And guess what?

Yep, that's right, pharma's doing worse that the average company, too. Even worse, actually: note that when Bush took office (Jan '01) PPH was 20 points above the Dow. So to compare how it's done since then, mentally drop the blue line down one full one bar. It's done awful.

How do leftists do it? I mean, it's almost like they're psychic in reverse -- they have an almost-eerie ability to choose wrong and/or harmful positions. Almost as if by instinct.