How often do people imagine a US President makes a policy decision?

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9. There is no disconnect. There is just disagreement.

You sound like a neo-liberal business friendly New Dem who sees the government as a corporate structure. The president is just another manager in the system. He might be a CEO or a chairman of the board. But really he is just a manager who hires other managers to slowly make the business work.

I am trained in business and psychology, and I disagree. The president is not just a manager/figure head. He is supposed to be a leader. He acts not only on pragmatics but also on principles and on vision.

A great analysis of this difference and discussion about leadership is Siegel's book The President as Leader. I don't agree with everything he writes about as I disagree with him about Obama's leadership abilities, but his discussion of traits necessary for a president to be a great leader seem spot on.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/what-makes-a-president-a-great-leader/2012/11/06/2f0ef12c-2825-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html

1) A compelling vision
2) Wherewithal to implement this vision
3) Focus on a few major goals at a time
4) Does the leader understand the implications of decision making.

His profiles of several Presidents he calls great leaders completely goes against your assumption that the president is just an administrator or figure head.

Let me take this further by analyzing Obama just a bit to see that your statement that the only thing that matters is an R or a D after his/her name is equally false.

Obama campaigned as progressive liberal Democrat. Hope and change after 8 years of war, corporate greed, and lies of atrocity. He sold a vision of a man who would stand up against all of those thing. But the reality is that he did not. Many Democrats have felt betrayal and anger growing over the last 8 years. One thing after another showed them that Obama was not who he said he was. Oh sure he evolved on gay marriage, yet he defended DOMA, DADT, and had a virulently anti-gay preacher at his first inauguration. He talked a great talk about the horrors and abuses started by Bush's war on terror, yet he admonished us to then look forward, not back, expanded so much of the war's tools from drone strikes to NSA surveillance, and he chose hawks as his advisers.

I think the final straw for many is the TPP. Here is a man who claimed he would put on his soft shoes to support unions and American jobs, and yet now he is pushing, no ramming, the TPP through against his own party's lack of support. Obama's vision is that of a New Dem. It is reflected in his cabinet choices. It is reflected in how quickly he went from running on the public option to an insurance mandated corporate health plan. It is reflected in the simple truth that he is willing to work with the GOP to get this TPP pushed through. This is the New Dem vision. It started with Bill Clinton, and it continued with Barack Obama. It was easy for some to delude themselves that really the only reason Obama acts this way is because of racism and GOP obstructionism. Yet, now the GOP racists are working hand in hand with Obama to get the TPP/TPA pushed through.

So yeah, it does matter whether there is a D or an R after the name but only after you accept that the president is a leader trying to implement their vision. For many of us now, we are sick and bloody tired of the New Dem 'new deal'. It sucks economically. It sucks socially. It sucks for Americans and it sucks for other countries as well. It allows for increasing MIC control and the day to day acceptance of violence to promote a neo-con foreign policy agenda. It is as far from the FDR New Deal as Democrats and left-leaning independents & Greens can imagine.

So for me, I want a presidential candidate with a consistent and congruent history of principled action. I want a man or a woman who is a leader and not just another fucking administrator. I don't want my country to be run like a corporation. I don't want to just be a commodity or a consumer or both. There will not be racial justice, social justice, and economic justice until a better vision than the GOP's or the New Dem's is implemented from top down in this country.

Why have I chosen Sanders? Because of that vision and need for the economic justice of yesterday and the social justice of today. Why am I critical of Clinton and vow not to vote for her? Because she is just another New Dem. Her vision is no different than her husbands from the 1990's and Obama's the last eight years. So yes, it is important to be opposed to the TPP even in the version we are able to see leaked today. It is equally important to know where our potential leaders stand on the issue. Sanders is clear. I expect O'Malley to at least state yes or no on supporting it once he joins the race in a few days. But right now, Clinton is hedging. She is triangulating her own party. She doesn't seem to want to clearly state whether she is for or against it. Anyone paying attention knows she is for it, but her not admitting that should be a big fucking red flag for those who want and need something different from the Democratic leadership in this country.

Seigel discusses one instance showing the great leadership of JFK. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs, he went on national TV and said: "Ladies and gentlemen. Success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan. I failed. Blame me." His popularity went through the roof because we want honest not perfect leaders. I can not imagine any New Dem acting like that.

Hell Bill Clinton went on TV and lied about a damned affair and quibbled over the meaning of the word 'is'. No one would have given a shit that he had an affair. He isn't perfect. They do care that he lied. Hillary sadly is the same. She won't just say I fucked up and am partly to blame for DOMA and DADT and another 2 decades of bigotry towards homosexuals. No, she says, 'we' evolved. Has she ever said, wow, I fucked up and trusted Bush's intel on Iraq. I should have known better but I was blinded by my ambition? That would be honesty. Hell I might even start to respect her if she could do that. But no, she said 'we' all were lied to and believed them. So sorry we enabled so much death and destruction. But obviously I would do it again - we came, we saw, he died lol.

Yes, leadership does matter to the American people. We are looking for a president as a leader and not just another goddamned ceremonial figure or administrator. Your perception is but on side of the coin where both are needed.