I went with the bos elder as the best. He is making the best out of a bad situation. He, like elder Lyons is very cautious, almost overley so. Caution is one of the key attributes of wisdom, wisdom is many the most key attribute in being a good leader.
Worst are anyone involved with the way NCR is running the campaign in the mw. NCR leadership and strategists are brain dead.
Funny, Edward Sallow was in a bad situation (being kidnapped by a tribe on the verge of collapsing) and he made it better than the Mojave BoS did (formed a big empire).
I agree with you on the nCR thing though, there strategy is to rush into new land, tell them they're part of the NCR now, tax them to hell, take their resources, and use them to expand even further.
1) Annex a lot of land you can barely control.
2) Give them high taxes
3) ???
4) Profit
Simple.