I think you focus to much on the individual candidate themselves. When trying to understand what a president will do after an election, look at the kind of people who he picks as his advisers.
If president takes mainstream economists as his economy advisers instead of a bunch of bankers, that says something that might be more important than a quiz on economic knowledge. A president isn't going to write his own economic policy anyway. It's the job of the president to pick the right expert to write the economic policy.
See this Newsroom clip.
Basically, their news network is trying to change the way political debates work by having the moderator force the candidates to answer the questions that are asked of them, not interrupt each other, justify arguments that are based on obvious falsehoods etc.
How big of a positive impact do you guys think that this would have on society?
My initial thoughts are that it would be huge. It would lead to better politicians, which would be a high level of action. The positive effects would trickle down into many aspects of our society.
The question then becomes, "can we make this happen?". I don't see a way right now, but the idea has enough upside to me that I keep it in the back of my mind in case I come up with a plausible way of implementing the change.
Thoughts?