United States President = Nation's biggest advocate?

When running for  President of the United States, generally we vote for the candidate that is most suitable for the position and will do the most to help out country. You would think that the president would be the most patriotic person and do only things to help our country, but this is not always the case. Once a person is elected president, they have one goal. That one goal is to ensure that they have the opportunity to sit in that office for another four years,
At this point in our history we are headed into bankruptcy. Instead of politicians making changes that would alleviate this problem, we just idly sit by and let the problem worsen. When the politicians have the chance to pass bills and tighten budgets, they won't. Heaven forbid these elected representatives make some changes for our country and not worry about consequences. We need leaders that are willing to save our country. Lets face it, if the country goes under, none of these politicians will have jobs anyway.
It upsets me that our president will not make the necessary changes that are needed to fix our economy simply because he is worried about stepping on some toes and not getting re-elected.