Obama's presidency reminds me of Terminator 2.
He's a good guy trying to help people, and overall the US electing a black President was a historic step forward, guy is impervious to all attacks. He's the T-800, trying to do all this great stuff to save the world after being idolized by America's youth (John Connor). But America's old conservative regime (the T1000) is like hell no, we're stopping this thing at all cost, and we have tons of resources. So they fight and a bunch of innocent people get hurt, buildings get destroyed, millions of tax payer dollars are wasted on trying to stop them, etc... But the T1000 can't be reasoned with or talked to so it's give up or fight on. It takes all kinds of shapes and forms and lies to everybody but has only one purpose. You find out later that the big save-the-world plan doesn't even work out for the T-800 or John, everything gets blown to hell anyway and they don't actually accomplish much. But what does happen is the T1000 is finally destroyed. If the 2nd election of Obama was the frozen-smash-them-to-bits moment that doesn't actually kill them, the shutdown/default fight is when the T1000 gets thrown in the molten metal. When it dies it starts freaking out and turning into all kinds of shit and you see its makeup as it panics. Racist hillbillies, gay-hating conservatives, money-grubbing corporate shills, confederate flag-waving gun nuts - they're all exposed as they panic at the realization that they are helpless and have finally been trivialized.
So yeah, for not giving in to these assholes and finally exposing (and likely destroying) the dark corners of the Republican party, he's been a great leader. Does it suck that his Presidency will be marred in partisan bickering and a do-nothing Congress for the majority of his tenure? Absolutely. I just don't see it as a lack of leadership. When your kid holds his breath to get candy you're not a bad parent for not negotiating with him even if he passes out. It means your kid's a spoiled little shit who needs to learn his lesson. For Republicans to run on openly stated platforms of "stop Obama at all costs no matter what he proposes - even if it's Repbulican-written legislation" and then deride him for being a poor leader is pretty laughably transparent. Just like it is to call it "Obama's Shutdown" when the orchestration of the shutdown is documented.