Is Barack Obama a nice guy?

What sort of person is Barack Obama? A recent poll showed that more people like him personally than Mitt Romney. Is this valid?

The book The Obama's tells us a lot about the President's personality. He is ultra competitive. He is a bad loser but he is also a bad winner. He is the type of person who will rub it in your face when he wins and sulks when he loses.

There is a picture of the first Superbowl party. Obama wanted to have a small gathering of friends but his political advisers talked him into inviting Congressional leaders from both parties as a chance to socialize and lobby. The problem was that Obama only cared about the game so the picture shows him celebrating a touchdown with his arms up while the rest of the room looks on.

Obama's dislike for politics and socializing forms an iron-clad rule. He spends most nights with his family in private.

The Obamas have few friends and when they went to DC they decided that they would not make any more. After all, everyone has an agenda and they worried that people they met would just be friends to push their agenda. When he was in the Illinois Senate, Obama had no friends among the other legislators.

The President has a temper. It probably is not as bad as Bill Clinton's red-faced rages but he can be sharp. This comes out occasionally in press conferences when he snaps at reporters. He is also convinced of his own superiority to everyone else. He told at least two people that it was difficult for him to select a cabinet because he could do everyone's job better than they could.

Obama is often petty and tends to demonize the opposition. He uses loaded terms like "fat-cat bankers". During the 2010 mid-term election he regularly told a story comparing the economy to a car that the Republicans drove into a ditch then stood on the top drinking a Slurpee while the Democrats did the hard work.

None of this paints a very nice view of the President and much of it comes from supporters.

When Ted Kennedy died, the press was full of stories of his friendship and kindness to people from both parties. No one will say this of Barack Obama.