Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

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This is really incredible, from tonight, Forbes:

“The man has very strong control over a country,” said the GOP nominee. Donald Trump has been fiercely criticized for praising Vladimir Putin, but on Wednesday, before an audience of veterans, he once again complimented the Russian president, even going so far as to suggest that Putin is a better leader than President Obama. “If [Putin] says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him,” the Republican presidential nominee said during NBC’s “Commander-in-Chief” forum on Wednesday. “Certainly in that system, he’s been a leader, far more than our president has been.” Trump also cited Putin’s “82% approval rating.”

Donald Trump: Putin Has 'Been a Leader Far More Than Our President'

A leader, but to what end? Take your pick:

• Stifling the domestic economy (see graph below), stuck in resource extraction dominated by billionaire olicharchs allied with Putin 
  
• Stifling domestic opposition (if not outright murdering them)
  
• Prop up a mass murderer in Syria, one that uses chemical weapons and barrel bombs on its own population
  
• Annexing part of a foreign country
  
• Shooting down a passenger plane
  
• Starting a proxy war in a foreign country
  

Now, what did Obama achieve?

• Providing health-care insurance for 20M additional people
  
• Get the US out of the Great Recession with the best recovery of all advanced nations
  
• No recession, 14M+ new jobs created
  
• Budget deficit declined from 10% to below 3%
  

Do we need to go on?