… Presidents are clearly punished for bad times and rewarded when the economy is strong. But do presidents really control the economy? Reasonable people may differ, but if they were honest, most who’ve tried pulling those levers from the White House would probably agree their influence is not as great as they would like.
One form of Talmudic logic, known as kal va’homer, roughly translates as “how much more so.” If you get punished because your ox gores a neighbor, how much more so if the ox had gored previously and you did nothing?
If presidents are punished for bad news that isn’t their fault, how much more so when they do influence the course of events for the worse? Which brings us to President Trump, who faces both an Everest and a K2 of bad news for which he is, at least partially, responsible. CONT.
Mark Mellman (Mellman Group), The Hill