I think you're right in the sense that the president doesn't really control things like the direction of the economy as much as most people think he does. Howev

I think you're right in the sense that the president doesn't really control things like the direction of the economy as much as most people think he does. However, I do think there are decisions that the president does have direct control over that have huge long term effects. For example, it's hard to imagine a Gore presidency would have had quite the same call to action in Iraq that the Bush presidency did, which really did have long term consequences on the economy and on the government as a whole.