I also believe that state behavior is based on social climate but I also firmly believe that the position of US president is almost entirely pointless. In a country run by a dictator (ie: russia and Caesar era Rome) the individual DOES make a load of difference, especially in short term decision making. Theres no beurocratic mess to fight through. You run the country it's YOUR call. America is run by a number of systems and layers of councils and voting. Between the Senate and congress alone instituting any change at all is an exhausting process. This translates to a bland and saturated political stance where truly as a nation, America is not truly switching from democratic to republican just because that particular political party won the election, but is instead perpetually moving toward an inevitability. Gay marriage? That was bound to pass eventually. Would it have happened sooner with a republican as our figure head? Likely not but it still would have happened. Any major change America makes for itself or its influences is inevitable. Changing which party is currently commander in chief on speeds or slows a process in the priority list. All nation states have inevitabilities. But in a state that isn't completely run by a singularity, these inevitabilities take longer and become easier to predict and criticize. Obviously if Obama were the president of North Korea, things would be different there. But its an entirely different nation with an entirely different set of regulations, protocol and political/social climate. So yes, the president does make SOME difference as to who's in charge but its so negligible in the long run (like 10-15 years later) that the overall effects of their presidency would go largely unnoticed. With the exception of people like Reagan who's decision to remove the gold standard (unless that was Nixon, whatever) [bleep]ed the economy so hard its ridiculous. And even that can be chalked to a mistake anyone could have made any number of years later. We cant learn from mistakes we haven't made yet