Originally posted on 08/29/2015:

Quote Originally Posted by Mr KLC View Post
Health care would not have been passed unless he had the majority in Congress. Didn't take any leadership to do that. Supreme Court made the decision on gays and marriage. Anyone could have "initiated" an Iran deal. He doesn't look like too much of a leader on how Iran seems to have fleeced him. As far as Cuba goes, hey, we can get those cigars now legally.
You, like many other conservatives, just automatically discredit anything Obama does. It's instinctual at this point. No thought goes into it. Just anti- anything Obama related.

And that's certainly fine. But I will disagree with you on many points about Obama not being a great leader. Has he been the most effective president? Probably not. Part of that can be attributed to a Congress that wouldn't compromise with him. It happens. Sometimes, for whatever reasons, logical or illogical, people don't click. Obama hasn't clicked with a lot of people, particularly middle aged and older white, male Americans ie Congress. Those are just the facts. But he has been extremely effective nonetheless.

He has been an amazing leader for minorities. He has fought for their causes. He continues to bring to the forefront the struggles they face. We've had president after president ignore their struggles as if they don't have rights as well. The old saying "majority rules, minority rights" seems to have stopped after the "majority rules" for so many administrations.

He's also been an amazing leader for the underserved in our society, not just minorities. Great leaders have vision. The ACA was his vision, so yes, that is an example of his leadership. Conservative estimates show that over 16 million Americans went from uninsured to insured directly related to the ACA. That's incredible.

Great leaders don't always have to serve the establishment, or the middle aged/older white male. Remember, this is new territory for us. We've always been catered to by leaders that served our needs, looked just like us, that we can relate to. Obama is different, his effectiveness is measured differently and that makes a lot people mad.

Anyone could have initiated the Iran deal, but no one else did. Anyone could have given the order to take out OBL, but no one else did. Anyone could have fought for gay marriage equality, but no one else did. Here we are in 2015 and plenty of other leaders before Obama could have done these things, but no one else did. So yes, by all accounts, he has been unequivocally a great leader.