Along those lines, I remember shortly after Bush came into office, a shocking number of liberal C-Span callers believed the economy slowed down because Bush didn’t have a “plan” for the economy as Clinton did. “Clinton focused on the economy! Bush doesn’t care about the economy!” I always liked this sort of formulation because it assumes that economics is actually a settled science and if politicians cared enough about the economy it would grow. After all Clinton not only made “grow” a transitive verb, he grew the economy.
What’s so amusing about this is the confluence of ignorances — about economics and politics — it reveals: First, the idea that if the president keeps his hands on the wheel of the economy and doesn’t get distracted it will go where he wants it to go; Second, the idea that there are presidents who wouldn’t do this if it were so.