Joe Leydon of Variety said "The deft editing and overall technical polish – as well as a generous travel budget – go a long way toward making the pic an attention-grabber" but that "the pic comes off as a cavalcade of conspiracy theories, psycho-politico conjectures and incendiary labeling," making it "highly unlikely that anyone predisposed to championing Obama would be won over". He also stated, "there's no gainsaying the value of '2016' as a sort of Cliffs Notes precis of the conservative case against the re-election of our current U.S. president."[24] Ben Mankiewicz stated, "I think [the film] is another reminder of how many people in this country find Obama so shockingly unlikesome that they are seemingly ready to believe the most nonsensical theories about him."[12]
Obama "shockingly unlikesome"?