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Americans view their own president as weaker than the Russian leader, yet many think Obama uses "too much power" 
Favorability
Americans seem to give President Barack Obama little credit when they compare him with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Americans overwhelmingly have an unfavorable opinion of Putin – his favorable rating is down to just 12% in this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll – but the Russian gets high marks for strong leadership.
Americans are not all that positive about their own leader. They are evenly split in their overall opinion of President Obama. It is a partisan divide, as are nearly all polling assessments of the President. 82% of Democrats have a favorable rating of the President, 82% of Republicans are unfavorable. As for Putin, his assessment is generally non-partisan. Two in three Republicans and two in three Democrats are unfavorable.
Leadership
There is no partisanship when it comes to assessing the Russian’s leadership qualities. Seven in ten Democrats and eight in ten Republicans call Putin a strong leader. Overall, more Americans say Putin is a strong leader than think that about the American President.
That assessment is affected by the negative ratings Republicans give the President on leadership. 76% of Democrats say Barack Obama is a strong leader, about the same percentage that say that about Putin. But only 14% of Republicans believe President Obama is a strong leader. In fact, Republicans are five times as likely to describe Vladimir Putin as a strong leader than to think this about Barack Obama.
Last September, in another Economist/YouGov Poll, Americans gave Putin credit over President Obama for being the most effective leader during the Syrian crisis. That poll was conducted when it appeared that the United States might resort to force after the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people. At that time, even Democrats were closely divided when it came to comparing the two.
Obama's use of power
While Republicans may think the American President is a weak leader, they also think he uses too much power, reflecting the anti-Obama sentiment that shows up in nearly every question this poll and others ask about the current President. In fact, 83% of Republicans say President Obama has exceeded the limits of the authority granted by the Constitution.
Some of those who believe the President has exceeded Constitutional authority point to his use of executive orders, while others talk about the changes to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. According to the American Presidency Project, at UC Santa Barbara, President Obama issued fewer Executive Orders in his first term than did any other modern President, Democrat or Republican. Of course, we are still counting the number for his second term, but there were only 21 between January 20, 2013 and January 20, 2014, according to the Project.
Some Democrats want the President to do more: 44% think President Obama does not use enough power.
