They do have some influence, it’s just not easy to measure how, or to know what will work at any given time. Supporting free trade agreements increases economic growth. Protectionism decreases economic growth but may protect jobs in certain regions and in certain industries. High spending supports government jobs but increases the burden on the private economy. Exploitation of energy resources has zero short term economic cost and is pure gain, but has environmental consequences and possible future economic consequences to go with it. Bailouts are just bad news all around but can save favored industries where the unions might be politically influential. Governors of states can make their state more competitive than its neighbors(see: what all neighboring states are doing to Illinois). So the public isn’t totally wrong, politicians do influence the economy. They just don’t RUN the economy and can’t stop economic cycles from happening. Recessions will happen even with the best economic policies and booms will happen even when the government is incompetent. But I do think that the period from 1983-2007 featured long booms and only mild recessions in part because our governments at all levels had better economic policies than in the 1970s. The 1970s was just a horror of stupid policymaking, from attempting to ration gas, to price controls, to fighting inflation by refusing to pay higher prices(or accept higher wages). Just pure nonsense and I’d love to know who was giving Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter such stupid advice. Or if they were even listening.
There’s one way. 
nin’ja’ed
My first impression of The Donald presidential campaign was it was just a media circus when the other candidates were boring. It rather quickly became entrenched. He’d say something stupid and all the media outlets would broadcast it, totally free.
The snowball got rolling and there may be nothing to stop it from rolling into the White House. There was a Daily Show writer said she was praying for The Donald to win, job security for the next four years …
:smack: