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I think all those impressions are accurate and important but does not necessarily make a strong president.

I loved GW Bush the first term. He was such a breath of fresh air after the stink and disgust of the Clintons.

But look at what you copied above about GW and Laura, and Rove. They wanted to be considerate, always respectful, nicest, never a harsh word etc. Rove was the most caring....

All these things are great but they translated into letting just about everyone including some slick Wall St. power brokers walk all over them. The choice of Harriet Myers for consideration as a Supreme Court Justice? That would have been an unmitigated disaster. The whole 2nd term agenda was a waste. The Tax Reform Commission was a big boondoggle with no results, left on auto-pilot; GW let everyone do as they wished, no leadership or no passionate intervention. And the liberal side of Laura was revealed in full, and GW was surely taking views from her.

But at least GW was a nice, gentle man, and nice to the Secret Service, just not a strong leader in his 2nd term.

So being nice to people is not an indicator. Being rotten to people indicates bad character but being nice does not translate to leadership.