Assuming 2013 is their time horizon for their selections let's look at the leadership positions taken by him in that period...
(1) Syria - After having said that using chemical weapons on civilians would be a "red line" and then using posturing language when someone, either the Syrian regime and/or the rebels, used them, he stepped back from that. I applaud the fact that we have not now attacked yet another middle eastern country and hope the agreement to rid the Syrian regime of their weapons and weapons-making capability has been neutralized
(2) Iran - Here I think he deserves more credit. The continue sanctions appear to have had enough impact that it brought the Iranian regime to the negotiating table. We are still far from a long-term agreement. Early signs are good on progress on the ground but I think there has to be another milestone agreement by sometime this summer to keep the momentum going. I applaud him for standing up to the chickenhawk Senators, including Democrats, that wanted to push through new sanctions on Iran which Iran said would be grounds for terminating the agreement.
(3) The ACA - the rollout was poorly executed. While any program of this magnitude would be a challenge the fact it appears they had signs a month before the start there were significant problems makes me scratch my head. Then there was the bungling/misunderstanding of the "if you like your health insurance you have now you can keep it". How someone didn't validate that assertion and develop a plan to address this before people started to get cancellation notices is beyond me. Then there have been the nibbling at the edges to delay certain aspects of implementation. Those "adjustments" by themselves, without the other issues, would be expected. And then there was a total lack of Executive engagement on this issue. I was expecting much more "education" from key administration figures over the past several years on the benefits of the ACA and once we were doing the roll-out I expected there to be a lot of noise. Given the problems with the first couple of months of course they kept fairly low key. But where are they now? I see a few speeches by the President, the VP and the Secy of Health and Human Services but that's about it. I see a few ads on television. There should be much more energy behind this.
Those were probably the major issues in 2013. I think he stumbled to something that will hopefully be successful in Syria although recent advances by the Syrian regime draw that into question. His performance on the ACA was jerky and less than stellar. The only place where his policies and leadership were of significance was with respect to Iran. Again I hope this is successful but time will tell.
Against that backdrop I don't know that their finding he didn't rise to the top is that surprising. Trust me I am glad he is sitting in the White House and not John "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" or Mr. RMoney. He has done many very good things including pulling our entire country back from the brink of certain economic collapse. But in the past year there hasn't been a lot to crow about.
= new reply since forum marked as read