why are (some) Americans obsessed with Putin?

[George S]

They see him as a strong and protective but careful "daddy" over a strong government. Thoughts of him allow them to stop sucking their thumbs so hard as they do under this and the last president here.

Our last "daddy" was strong and protective but he did things very frightening to our little thumb-sucking adult citizens. Today's "daddy" is not strong and protective enough even for his drooling and babbling party members.

I like his approach but as the progressive he is underneath I couldn't vote for him. I am a true liberal, not the usual progressive or socialist falsely calling myself one.

Below are accurate definitions:

True liberals advocate: individual freedom, weak government, and free markets. Progressives advocate: social concern, omniscient government, and controlled markets. Socialists advocate: social responsibility, omnipresent government, and collective markets. Conservatives advocate: moral responsibility, strong government, and protected markets ("neo-cons" with international businesses have adopted freer market policies).

PS: If you mean obsessed in a negative way, the American bourgeois conservatives and true liberals here don't trust him because he and his government have too much power over citizens. We no longer suck our thumbs, like most Americans now do, and we don't want any "daddy" over us particularly a stronger one.

PPS: We outlawed aristocracy after our revolution but didn't outlaw the bourgeois industrialists and professionals as Russia did after Marxist Bolsheviks stole its revolution.