Who Is President Matters Much Less Than We Think: Freakonomics’ Stephen Dubner

This is a follow up to the post [February 1, 2012 What Do Markets Have to Do with the Election?] Freakonomics style.  Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics was on Yahoo's The Daily Ticker discussing how much a President really matters.  "The president generally matters so much less than we think," says Dubner. "Especially when it comes to the economy."


Like a head coach and quarterback in football they often receive to much of the blame when the team loses and to much of the credit when  the team wins.  The President is often in a similar situation when it comes to the economy.  The President cannot control the economic cycles and has limited ability to get things through congress where most of the issues go to die.


However, as I have stated previously if the economy continues to show signs of life and the unemployment numbers continue to come down the President will have much better odds of retaining his position against the GOP nominee.