Yet the fact is that no one can live up to these expectations. Both the candidates and the electorate are guilty of a loss of constitutional perspective. In reality, the president of the US has a distinctly constrained constitutional authority. He cannot make laws, at least not in the all-encompassing way that congress can. He cannot raise taxes, nor declare wars (Iraq was authorised and continues to be funded by congress). He cannot make treaties with other nations. Unlike the British prime minister, he cannot even appoint his own cabinet without approval. The US constitution offers little more than an outline of the presidency, saying more about how the president should be appointed, paid and impeached than about the extent of his powers. On the election of General Dwight Eisenhower as president in 1952, his immediate predecessor, Harry S Truman, laughed. "He’ll sit there all day saying, ‘do this, do that’ and nothing will happen," he said. "Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the army." . . . [Complete Prospect article here.]

Contrast Truman's remarks, infused with the wisdom of actual experience, with Hillary Clinton's promises to "manage" the economy better than George W. Bush. As Boyle writes, the President of the U.S. doesn't even manage Congress, a body of 535 individuals, which in the private sector would be a fairly small business. The notion that one person "manages" a $13 trillion economy is laughable.

The power of the President, Boyle writes, is actually the power to persuade. The President may propose legislation to Congress, but has no ability to enact or even introduce such proposals. The President must persuade the people of his views so that they will pressure their Congressional representatives to support him. He must even persuade the bureaucracy of the executive branch to enforce the laws he supports.

Presidents are like coaches in sports: they receive way too much credit when things are going well, and are tagged with too much of the blame when they aren't. We the people invest a tremendous amount of energy for change and reform behind individuals. Individuals can only do so much; they cannot simply do their own will. After the heat generated by enthusiastic campaigns, they must persuade us of the rightness of their actions.

For this, we owe gratitude to the wisdom of our Founding Fathers and the system they created. Thank goodness for such foresight. It's probably saved us more than we'll ever know.