How often did you see, hear, or read people being interviewed about the price of gas and blame Bush because he was an "oil man" or had close ties with "Big Oil"? Virtually every day. But Bush has no control over the price of oil or the price of gas. But a large number of people actually believe he controls it and jacked it up to make his buddies rich, and then lowered it prior to the election to help republicans.
It is funny stuff. When you sit down and take a good look at things the President can actually affect, it generates a real short list. He can deliver a speech, a pep talk; he can propose all kinds of things in the State of the Union address, but all that is for Congress to act on or not. But what can he actually do aside from administer programs as funded by Congress? There is the big red button. That's something, but if he pushes we're all done anyway.