PRESIDENT

BARACK OBAMA

From the moment Barack Obama steps on the national and the world stage, his words and actions identify him as a Power of Imagination character.

In his campaigns and Presidential speeches, Obama often uses the words “we” and “us. David Brooks commented in an Op-Ed piece in The New York Times:

“Out of (Obama’s) perceptiveness comes a distinct way of seeing the world. Obama emphasizes the connections between people, the networks and the webs of influence. These sorts of links are invisible to some of his rivals, but Obama is a communitarian. He believes you can only make profound political changes if you first change the spirit of the community. In his speeches, he says that if one person stands up, then another will stand up and another and another and you’ll get a nation standing up.”

Power Comes from the Bottom Up

Obama’s grassroots campaign and the masses of small individual donations demonstrate his bottom-up approach.  The danger is that these characters are always collecting allies and consensus while avoiding stepping out decisively. Their leap of faith is leading them to make hard decisions that create conflict with hoped-for allies.

Power of Imagination characters are humble and naturally self-effacing.  They seek greatness and draw inspiration from others. Rather than impose it from the top-down as Trump does, “Only I can fix it.” Over the years, Obama has been the subject of great public adulation. Far from getting drunk on it, he has become even less pompous and proud. Unlike former President Trump, whose never-ending greed for grandiosity and adoration cannot be satisfied.

Fictional Example

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