Hostage or president

According to some man on CSPAN radio today, President Obama is, like Carter before him with real hostages, "being held hostage by the economy." 

Except, what? No. These sorts of digressions, while I'm sure fascinating for the pundits and commentators who make them, are worthless. What is being president if not to take some responsibility when Americans are taken hostage because of your foreign policy or when the economy continues to suck because you bungled up the recovery and are seen as being amenable to the big bad banking guys. That's not being a hostage, that's being a mediocre president.