There is indeed a general rule that the party in the White House should have an automatic win when the economy is in good shape. Nobody claims that the party in power need prove it is responsible for the economy being in good shape. Everybody agrees it is usually largely a matter of luck. Nonetheless, the party in power is expected to benefit from it. So the wide-eyed newsmen ask how it is possible that Gore should have a problem when Clinton has experienced eight years of boom.
Conservatives share their puzzlement.
Apparently I was all alone as I watched the enormous embarrassment of the Clinton Administration in the Lewinsky affair and the cover up. Even the media admit it was a gigantic scandal. At any other time in American history, that scandal would have meant total defeat for the party in the White House in the next election. The reason for the present boom would be a major embarrassment for the political left, so the respectable right will never discuss it. So Clinton had nothing to do with the continuing boom.