Opebo, your percentage numbers would have more meaning if they were inflation adjusted. Inflation was alive and well in 1976-1978. Real percentage growth might have been anemic or negative.
I think he did use real growth, the first percentage is nominal, the second real? Or is he fooling around with them?
Absolutely correct, bullmoose. Sorry, Torie, that my labelling and columns were a bit off, but yes, the first figure is nominal, and the second 'real' GDP growth. Real GDP growth was quite strong in 76, 77, and 78. Those were great years for american workers.
My apologies Opebo. I was just having a senior moment - your chart upon review was sufficiently lucid to cause me to pen the first bit of this sentence. 
I agree that the chart was accurate, but the four year stretch from 1976 through 1979 wasn't quite better than anything since. I used the tables for annual and quarterly real GDP as maintained by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That stretch had a total growth of 20.00% over four years. The period from 1983 through 1986 had a growth of 20.70%. It is true that no four year period in the 90's beat that. For comparison, Clinton's best years were from 1996 through 1999 and only reached 17.91%.
On the other hand, if you use average annual percentage increase in jobs by President as your barometer, then for the last 85 years every Democratic President beats every Republican President. The worst 3 are Hoover, Bush 43, and Bush 41.
Poll
