Inside Obama's Presidency

  The character type that best describes President Obama is active positive.  I agree with Ally's analysis of Barack Obama, in which he has high self-esteem, enjoys his job, and has person goals.  These characteristics are all found in an active positive president.  Although Obama has moved around Barber's chart depending on the time of his presidency he always seems to come back to active positive.  When Obama first came to office he was extremely hopeful looking for a bipartisan government and wanted to get things done, regardless if those things changed his approval ratings.  Two instances when Obama had this in mindset was in passing Obamacare and capturing Osama Bin Laden.  Many of his advisors told him that it would be a risk doing both, but Obama was confident and put his high approval ratings to use.  Since Obama did not care about his approval ratings it shows that he had high self-esteem and a positive lookout. Also, by setting out these personal goals and conquering them it shows how he is active positive in both foreign affairs and the United States government.  As Obama came up for re-election he started to shift to ensure votes, but came back to his usual active positive self as soon as he was safe in the White House for his second term.  

   I strongly agree with Ally's example of Obama making fun of himself and showing humor with his job in his "Thanks Obama" video.  The video showed that Obama is not sad or aggressive even with his approval rating dropping.  It shows that Obama likes his job and feels comfortable enough to make a public joke about himself, which is another key sign of an active positive president. 

   In the gridlock that the United States is currently in Obama's character type makes him extremely effective.  With a split government, Congress is not going to get much done, so the President has to step up and be active, successful, and have a flexible style.  Theses are all characteristics of a active positive president, and therefore of Obama.  Obama was successful in his goals of healthcare and capturing Osama Bin Laden.  He was also very active in passing a healthcare reform as he travelled the country to spend word about it and share his confidence in it.  Obama has a very flexible style, moving away from bipartisan when he saw nothing was getting done but still keeping in mind what Republicans look for with his own legislation.  Overall, to get any legislation passed a President has to be active positive in the current gridlock government.  With that said voters should be looking for an active positive president in 2016 to ensure that legislation is still passed and the government won't go through any shutdown because of Democratic and Republican disagreements.