Pope Francis tops Fortune's 'World's Greatest Leaders' list, but no Obama

[onehandle]

Source: Today Show

Pope Francis was named the world's greatest leader by Fortune magazine, topping a diverse list released Thursday.

Fortune’s first list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders includes a Hollywood actress, a baseball superstar, a teenage education advocate and the president of a small California college. It also includes a former American president, but the current one failed to make the cut.

Former President Bill Clinton ranks No. 5 on the list, selected for being a “relentless and forceful advocate” in numerous causes, but noticeably absent is one of his successors and the current leader of the free world.

"President Obama wasn't excluded from Fortune's World's 50 Greatest Leaders list,” Fortune said in a statement. “He simply didn't make this year's list of 50 outstanding individuals who have demonstrated rare leadership, leadership in multiple areas or who have demonstrated a long history of leading.”

Read more: http://www.today.com/news/pope-francis-tops-fortunes-worlds-greatest-leaders-list-no-obama-2D79408674

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Kind of dickish for Today to report it that way.
____________________

Gabrielle Giffords #24 on Fortune's 'World's 50 Greatest Leaders' List, much to gun nuts chagrin

Co-founder, Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS)

Three years after she was shot at a Tucson supermarket, the former Arizona congresswoman has become a major force in the effort to end the plague of gun violence. In 2013 she and husband Mark Kelly, both gun owners, launched a Super PAC, ARS, a move that Daniel Webster, director of John Hopkins' Center for Gun Policy and Research, calls a true "game changer."

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/leadership/2014/03/20/worlds-best-leaders.fortune/24.html

Bill Clinton and Tim Cook are on the list as well.

[olddad56]

1. Where is GWB? I think he would top the list of Worlds Worst Leaders.

[msongs]

2. FORTUNE magazine likes the filthy rich catholic church leader. show me the $$$ lol

[mahannah]

3. Francis is a good choice. Ignoring Obama is just stupid.

[Swede Atlanta]

4. Obama can't always be there......

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.

[mahannah]

6. Agree, for the most part. I hope that O can find his "self" if he has one.

[Fred Sanders]

5. The 1% is full of racists and dominated by old white folk. That is why.

[indepBB]

7. Your comment is kind of ignorant, ageist, and racist

Also Barry has had US citizens murdered and is apparently ok with the intelligence community ignoring both US law and citizens rights. Also he is not so great at uniting people (outside of campaigning) or achieving much in the face adversity.

[Nihil]

8. 3.5 years under cover and blown by the 2nd post ...

[underthematrix]

9. indepBB - He is President Obama to you and given

that the Pope heads the largest pedophile organization in the world, it is definitely NOT a list I would want President Obama on.

[indepBB]

10. So then why is

this even a story worth DU's time? Just because someone is President doesn't automatically make them someone to respect nor one of the worlds Most outstanding leaders. The United States only got to the moon because we had Nazi's help us and we routinely commit war crimes, does that mean we're all jerks?