Victor Davis Hanson‘s latest contribution to National Review Online explores public perception of President Obama in this seventh year of his administration.

Aside from those who automatically support Obama because he is a redistributionist Democrat, and those who automatically oppose him because he is an unapologetic Great Society liberal, there are currently three general takes on Obama.

I. Self-Portrait

Obama’s own judgment on his tenure is now all too clear: He saved us from another Great Depression, and he has made the United States more secure and more popular in the eyes of the world than we have been at any time in our recent history. Obama “ended two wars” (in the sense of pulling troops out of Iraq and steadily bringing them back from Afghanistan). According to Obama, America has never been more liked abroad, largely because his lead-from-behind policies have ended the image of the U.S. as bully. …

… II. The Majority Take

Obama has not polled a 50 percent positive rating in two years. George W. Bush is now more popular than Barack Obama. It is easy to see why. By the time Obama entered office the war in Iraq had already ended; the country was quiet, but in need of U.S. stewardship, in the manner of South Korea circa 1953–54. For the sake of a campaign talking point, Obama pulled out all American troops, Iraq sunk into chaos, and ISIS was birthed — an Islamic fascist movement that he deprecated as a “JV” team. He telegraphed his plans to leave Afghanistan, and its fate will likely be similar to Iraq’s. His false red lines in Syria, the bomb-and-run destruction of Libya, the Benghazi disaster, the needless estrangement from Israel, the alienation of the Gulf monarchies, and the courting of Iran by dropping sanctions and not insisting on full inspections as part of nuclear talks have all helped to demolish U.S. influence in the region, and contributed to the most unstable Middle East since World War II. …

… III. Being There

A third view of Obama is neither so rosy as the first nor so melodramatic as the second. Obama may well have been an unapologetic progressive wolf in centrist clothing, but mostly he was a continuation of what he had been in the past: an unimpressive state legislator, a one-term partisan senator without any accomplishments, a lackadaisical executive who in his own words had to worry most about not appearing lazy and distracted. Obama as president simply pushed the right progressive buttons, all the more easily once his own party lost the Congress and he was freed to sign executive orders that enraged his enemies and moved the country leftward. He cares little about the scandals involving the IRS, VA, AP, NSA, GSA, TSA, EPA, Benghazi, and the Secret Service, other than ensuring that they stay far away from his own godhead.