It's so fucked up here. I watched most of the Republican debates for entertainment value and they're just shredding Obama for being too liberal and leading our nation in the wrong direction when any reasonable person sees him as a pragmatic center leftist who's got unemployment down about as low as it goes and the stock market is at record levels. But the base just eats this shit up. The debates are like watching a parallel universe where America is on the brink of collapsing into Balkanized anarchy. Except maybe Marco Rubio, all the top GOP polling candidates are so far right they're sidling up next to Mussolini. If I worked in IT or something else economically valuable I would move to Europe.
The economy is too complex to blame on the President. The public likes to relate the two, and for sure, there is some connection, but Obama is no more responsible for the recovery than Bush was for the crash. While linked, conflating politics and the economy can also be a mistake, just like falling for populists and demagogues. As much as either party would deny it, they aren't too far apart economically. Even Sander's proposals do little to the underlying base of the economy, and if he is elected, the economy will keep on doing pretty much what it wants—by itself, apart from politics. There's a huge gulf from anyone to Mussolini's corporatist structure. Plus, it's still before the primaries, and each side is focusing on highly salient issues with their base of primary voters. Once the first primaries take place and candidates start dropping out, the real issues of the election will come to the forefront.
Thank you for saying that. It is a pet peeve of mine when people blame the President of any party for any major economic activity. The Fed operates outside of both executive and legislative government specifically for this reason. It's akin to blaming the President for high gas prices.