Barber's Theory of Presidential Character: Obama

President Barack Obama most exhibits character traits that land him the passive positive box. The most impactful parts of Obama's character are his need for approval and his inability to adapt to to achieve necessary goals. In the beginning of his presidency Obama was faced with the crisis on Wall Street. This was a great way to observe both of his major characteristics. In his dealings with the CEOs who were more or less at fault for the economics crash Obama wanted their compliance and didn't reprimand them. He was in a perfect position to not only show those bankers but also the who country that he was the type of man to put his foot down and do what the country needed. Instead he tried to compromise with them and that lead to them not respecting his authority as a leader. This was seen when they didn't even bother to show up to a speech he made on Wall Street about its condition. The nation also saw Obama's inability to adapt. He came into his position with the goal to work on reforming health care and while many would argue that his ability to achieve that goal makes him active I disagree. Health care was not a prominent issue when he took office, he made it one. The prominent issue was Wall Street and instead of seeing it that issue through until its completion he put it off to the side and just stirred more trouble up for himself. This is not what our country needs in this moment in time.
Our country needs a president that will deal with the open ended issues that are plaguing this country before beginning any more projects. We need someone that will make the hard and fast decisions that will not necessarily make them popular but will aid the people of this nation overall. I believe that an active positive president is what we need. An example is Lydon B. Johnson. He worked on the issue of his time that everyone in the nation was calling for him to deal with, civil rights. Action needed to be taken and he took it. Even after a southern congressmen told he would lose the support of the entire south he made the decision to fight for civil rights. He wasn't looking for the approval of the nation he was looking for what the nation needed.

This is an image of Obama shaking the hand of one of the CEOs to a bank that nearly destroyed the nation's economy.

This is an image of LBJ telling the southern congressman that he just couldn't give a damn.