Is Obama's leadership style equivalent to Jimmy Carter or Halie Selassie?

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.  Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.

The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469 - 1527

President Obama went to the Summit of Americas last week to meet with leaders from the Caribbean and Latin America.  By now we have all seen Mr. Obama's handshake with Venezuela's president / dictator Hugo Chavez.  Mr. Chavez also gave President Obama a book in front of the international media, which allegedly details America and Europe's exploitation of Latin America. What I found interesting about the book exchange was the sly grin on Chavez's face when he walked away. 

If that wasn't enough, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an anti Israeli speech at the United Nations conference in Geneva on Monday.  Iran has also recently sentenced an Iranian American Journalist, Roxana Saberi to eight years in prison for allegedly spying and passing secrets to the CIA.  I'm pretty sure that Ms. Saberi, who was born in North Dakota, but has lived in Iran for the past six years doing freelance reporting for National Public Radio and the BBC, is not really a spy.  Many insiders believe that the hard-liners in Iran do not want close ties with America, thus are creating a crisis that would make it more difficult for such to take place. Or, they're going to use Ms. Saberi as a bargaining chip to leverage against America during possible negotiations over Iranian Nuclear ambitions.

Either way, both of these incidents have brought into question President Obama's way of dealing with conflict.  Many of Obama's detractors have brought up that our President has looked weak.  That leaders like Chavez and Ahmadinejad are behaving like Bullies because they take Mr. Obama's kindness for weakness.

To be honest, I do believe Mr. Obama's detractors may have a point.  Certain human beings get a kick out of being aggressive and getting what they want, when they want it.  They don't care about you or me and will push anyone around as long as they can.  Bullies will bully until they run into someone stronger who isn't going to take it.  Usually, Bullies avoid someone who is stronger or who is their equal. They tend to fight with someone who they know won't fight back or they're just plain stronger than the victim. 

The fact that Iran seems to be giving America the middle finger along with our president being a democrat, the name Jimmy Carter has surfaced.  Many people compare former president Carter's inability to fight back as similar to President Obama.  

That is certainly one way to look it.  Another possibility is president Obama's leadership style could be similar to Halie Selassie.  Many of Mr. Selassie's (Ethiopian leader from 1930-1974) rivals could not understand how this quiet, mild mannered man rose to become a leader.  He never got angry or emotional, he would smile in his enemies face, making them feel more powerful before he attacked. Mr. Selassie would use bullies aggression against them, he would appear weaker than he really was and then lure them in with a trap.  By the time his victims realized what was going on, it would be too late.

Only time will tell what Mr. Obama's leadership style really is and whether its effective or not. For President Obama's sake, I hope his style resembles Mr. Selassie more than Mr. Carter.

How do you view President Obama's leadership style?  Do you think he's being bullied by world leaders? Does this show America has a stereotyped view of Manhood or is this just reality?  Let me know.