What Makes Obama A Good President?

Far too early to tell if he is the 'best President' or not, though if you are on the left / liberal side of the spectrum, no doubt you will probably think he is the best since Kennedy. If you are on the right of the spectrum, then obviously you won't. He comes across well and appears calm and pretty unflappable. However, he has also shown signs of vacillating / hedging under pressure. He needs to pick up his courage and be clearer as to what he wants to do. In the end though, it is by his actions and results by which he will finally be judged - and this sometimes cannot be fully determined until long after his presidency will have ended.

He takes chances, sees more than one side of a problem, appreciates the trials and struggles of the common family.

It's not fair to say he's the best President until he's served his term in office and then a body of work can be fairly compared against others. In my opinion though he shows the most promise of any President I've known at this point in his Presidency and is rising remarkably well to some of the toughest challenges any President has faced. Speaking as a (legal) immigrant, I will tell you that over the past few years the USA has lost a lot of crediblity around the world due to taking somewhat arrogant positons in a range of world affairs. This could ver easily have lead to a crisis for this country but the matter has been addressed HEAD ON by the administration with an exceptional appointment to Foreign Secretary with Hillary Clinton who has worked very well to mend bridges around the world but Obama has involved himself directly too in this action and engaged many other key luminaries in the activity. I have to tell you as an outsider, this is exceptional statesmanship and great courage has been shown in sme of the stances taken. The repositioning of foreign defense policy targeting the REAL threat of Al Quaeyda in Pakistan and Afghanistan rather than Iraq- LONG espoused by much of the rest of the world but only affected under this President shows more wisdom and intelligence at work in the earliest days of this administration. Tackling the economy by continuing the support of the efforts of the Fed reserve as well as the policies of Paulsen - and I agree - taking us back from the brink of a new depression (and credit to the republican administration for getting that ball rolling late last year too); addressing the hot potato of health care and not allowing it so slide into thj shadows under the immense pressure brought by extremely wealthy and threatened special interests and powerful media barons (Murdoch); the list goes on and on and on and no doubt my somewhat partisan position will invite some scorn. I am just truly impressed with the scale of what has already been achieved and what is being taken on - real problems - against a throng of dissent and utter negativity.