Barack Obama or Donald Trump - who is the better leader?

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4 opinions, 30 replies
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100
User voted Donald Trump.
3 votes
Jan 12, 2017

This is a good question for after Donald Trump's first term. Although he has not taken office yet, he has still kept jobs from leaving to Mexico and for that I have high hopes for the next president.

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100
1 vote
Jan 13, 2017

The Trump administration hasn't even started yet! Therefore, there is no comparison. We'll need at least a year to see the trend of his leadership.

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0
User voted Barack Obama.
0 votes
Mar 11, 2017

Regardless of politics, Obama is clearly the better leader. He's poised, an excellent public speaker, charismatic, and good at compromise. Trump lacks self-control, stating whatever pops into his head as his emotions dictate, undermining the efforts to compromise of both his enemies and his allies. His public speaking skills leave much to be desired, and, instead of being charismatic, he's massively unpleasant both in public and in private. Even if his policies really do make America "great" as he claims, it won't be because of his leadership skills.

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0
User voted Donald Trump.
main reply
0 votes,
Mar 12, 2017

While I'll agree President Obama was charismatic, he wasn't that good of a public speaker if he ever had to leave his prepared speech, and he wasn't good at compromise, look at the number of times he just ignored congress, the number of times he said that if he didn't get his way he'd act without congressional approval. That is not someone who's good at compromise.

Unlike President Obama, President Trump was never a politician he was a businessman and didn't worry about playing nice or that his words might effect things outside his world. But just because you happen to be unpleasant, arrogant, etc, doesn't mean you can't be a great leader or have leadership skills, you only have to look Steve Jobs, like President Trump, he could also be arrogant unpleasant, but he did lead apple to success.

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100
User voted Barack Obama.
1 vote,
Mar 13, 2017

I would argue that his interactions with Congress are a poor example of his ability to compromise, not because of any fault of his, but because he was faced with a Congress that would refuse to entertain any cooperation on his major legislation not because of its content but simply because it came from him. The ACA is the best example. Despite the fact that it was based off of a piece of Republican legislation Republicans vehemently opposed it, and now that Republicans are back in power, their solution to repeal it...has kept most of it in place.

They would repeatedly block him however he turned; his broad use of his executive power wasn't due to his lack of ability to compromise, but due to the fact that his opponents were unwilling to compromise.

And while YUNo is right that he never compromised his core ideals, from a policy perspective, Obama was somewhat of a centrist who, like Clinton, accomplished much of the Republican agenda. He was tough on terror (but not tough on Muslims), ushering in the drone strikes that are widely decried as indiscriminate killing (mostly by liberals). He tried to push through the TPP, a massive pro-globalization and pro-free trade deal (which historically has been a conservative position; the fact that the Republican party, on Trump's back, ahs now become anti-free-trade is totally bizarre). And despite the fact that he tried to improve the lives of immigrants, he also deported more of them than any other president.

And I agree, simply being unpleasant doesn't make you a bad leader. Johnson, for example, was horribly unpleasant and would use both his height and his penis to physically intimidate people into doing what he wanted. But Trump isn't only unpleasant. He's bullish and petulant. And not in a deliberate way, like Johnson. He simply seems unable to control what comes out of his mouth, which is why he constantly contradicts himself and communicates with the American people primarily in 140 characters or less. That lack of self-control, that instability, is what pushes him as a leader far below the level of Obama.

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0
User voted Donald Trump.
0 votes,
Mar 13, 2017

"Despite the fact that it was based off of a piece of Republican legislation." Kind of, in 1993 there was a Republican bill in the Senate that looked a whole lot like ACA, but it wasn’t the only GOP bill on health carel, it never came to a vote and plenty of Republicans didn’t like it. Now one of the big reason people oppose the ACA isn't the act, but how it was passed. Many see it as a back room deal to shut out debate, remember "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it – away from the fog of the controversy.” which to a lot of people meant "We don't trust you to read and understand the bill", or as some people saw it ,"Shut up we KNOW what's best for you." BTW there are better ways of give people health coverage.

"They would repeatedly block him however he turned" or Republicans would said they were unwilling to compromise their core principals, it just depends on who's side you're on. Someone who was good at compromise, would have found a way to bring the other side on board, not ram what they wanted down their throats. Someone once said "Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way." in this case you could as easily say "Compromise is the art of letting someone else have your way."

Free trade only works when, as the UK has found out, when the countries involved have very similar economies, if one country had a much lower standard of living, IE US vs Mexico, then you have job flight. In Mexico the auto manufactures pays between $8 and $10 an hour plus benefits, a new hire in the US will make $16 to $19 an hour, plus benefits it doesn't take an accountant to see that you can make much more profit by moving the jobs away. When the "free trade" was sold to the workers, they were told how many jobs it would create, how much better we'd have it, and even then many people where not convinced. Time has shown that we had massive job flight, life in the middle of the country didn't get better, so now there are many people who are almost anti-trade, and President Trump took advantage of that. And the illegal alien problem, liberal really missed out on that issue, even though President Obama deported more people, his stand on "dreamers" made it seem he was soft on the illegal alien problem. Many people think the law should be followed, and those breaking our immigration laws, those who are working in the US illegally should be deported. Many feel the hearing should be, "Are you here illegally, if yes then are you claiming asylum and if so on what ground?", and if asylum isn't granted they should be on the next flight out of the country.

"And I agree, simply being unpleasant doesn't make you a bad leader. Johnson,..." President Johnson, was a long time politician , he learned to keep his mouth shut and give non-answer answers, it one of the thing some people found refreshing about Trump, he spoke his mind, and sometime misspoke, said thing that people were thinking but didn't dare to say. Time will tell if he become a better politician and self edits himself, or not.

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0
User voted Barack Obama.
0 votes,
Mar 13, 2017

I'm not trying to argue the effectiveness or wisdom of Obama's policies; I'm only trying to show that his centrist principles left him open to Republican ideas. And no, I don't think it's valid to say that, by obstructing Obama, Republicans were only sticking to their core values. Garland is a great example. He's liberal-leaning for sure, but altogether moderate, reasonable, and relatively non-partisan. But Republicans didn't reject him. They refused to even give him a hearing. They didn't even want to talk about it, and instead kept Garland in limbo for an amount of time unprecedented in US history.

Garland is a perfect example of why Obama was forced to go over the heads of Congress. Every time he would try to move towards the middle, they would back away and try to wash their hands of him. Compromise is certainly the art of letting someone else have their way. Obama was repeatedly open to that. But compromise is impossible if one side doesn't want to compromise at all, and would rather shut down the government than have a discussion (and yes, I realize Democrats are now pulling the same threat for Trump, and I think it's equally as indefensible no matter which side you're on).

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0
User voted Donald Trump.
0 votes,
Mar 14, 2017

"They refused to even give him a hearing. " Vice President Biden said that President Bush should delay filling a Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, until election was over, and that it was “essential” that the Senate refuse to confirm a nominee to the court until then. Of course they never had to refuse a nominee, but they did say the Senate should refuse to confirm. Funny how opinions change when your side is in power, and yes both sides do that, one rule for them, and another for us.

The democrats and republicans have shut the government down many times in the past (I think we're up to 18 or 19 times now), but given that the Senate and House moved from Democrat control to Republican, that should have been a clue that the people felt President Obama was on the wrong track. It's also why I'm not worried about President Trump, if we the people feel he's on the wrong track, we will vote the other side in to BLOCK him. That's what many Republicans thought when they got into off, they were voted in to stop President Obama and his programs, and I'm sure if we vote Democrats in they should / will feel the same way.

The big problem isn't the President, but that there aren't any great statesmen to bring a compromise together. In the past there have almost always been a few statesmen to pull the strings to get things done. But, like many times in the past, we once again a them vs us, or we're right and know best, and they don't.

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0
0 votes,
Mar 12, 2017

I thought his unwillingness to compromise his ideals was quite inspirational and something to be admired, given the circumstances.

I would be as impressed if Donald Trump would be able to find a compromise with the ones opposing his most extreme views.

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0
opinion
0 votes
Sep 9, 2020

in my opinion Obama is far more better leader than trump, better communicator , in with more class than trump

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