Gary Johnson: best job creator among presidential contenders?

I couldn’t help but notice this story from National Review online which seems to indicate that our own Gov. Gary Johnson was the best “job creating” governor among the GOP presidential field when he was Governor of New Mexico.

While I like Gary Johnson a great deal, the analysis really doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. First and foremost, not all of the GOP candidates were governors. Bachmann, Gingrich, Santorum, Cain, and Paul were not. That leaves just Pawlenty, Huntsman, Romney, Palin, and Johnson (throw in Perry for good measure though he hasn’t announced).

Then, there is the very real fact that Governors don’t “create” jobs. They only have partial control — along with their respective legislatures — over setting the conditions to create those jobs. Also, the policy conditions that a governor encounters while in office were created over generations. New Mexico is a liberal state that relies on federal largesse while Texas is a conservative one that creates jobs and economic growth by itself. Comparing the two is nearly impossible.

Lastly, there is the issue of time-frame. Johnson governed during the boom times of the 1990s and early 2000s. Most of the other candidates were in office more recently and thus have endured a struggling US economy.

I’m still looking at and learning about the other contenders, but I do know that Gary Johnson would never go for RomneyCare.