In 1972 James David Barber published The Presidential Character, basically a typology of presidential attitudes and behaviors. Here’s how it works. Draw a line across the middle sheet of paper. Label the space above the line as “active” and below the line “passive.”
Barber says that some presidents are activist, proposing major legislation, attempting to influence Congressional policy, and taking a lead on major issues. FDR springs to mind. Other presidents do very little while in office, basically warming the seat. Calvin Coolidge is one. When told Coolidge was dead, Alice Roosevelt Longworth exclaimed, “How could they tell?”
Now draw a line in the middle of the paper from top to bottom. Label the left side “positive” and the right hand side “negative.” Positive presidents are those who love the job and get a kick out of being president. Again, FDR springs to mind. Negative presidents hardly ever smile; when they do it seems forced. They run for president out of a sense of duty. Think Nixon or Wilson.
So now you have a matrix with four cells: active-positive, passive-positive; active-negative, and passive-negative. While we could argue about individual presidents, we probably would agree on a number of them. FDR--active-positive; the first George Bush--passive-positive; Nixon--active-negative; Coolidge--passive-negative. The last cell would have the least number, I believe, since if you don’t like the job and you don’t want to change policy, why even run? (Coolidge took over when Harding died, and although he could have easily won re-election in 1928, he chose not to run.)
Beyond providing for interesting discussions, does any of this matter? According to Barber, active-negative presidents are potentially a problem. They don’t enjoy the job, but they see a need to change policies. They tend to be testy, They do not play well with others.
Barber thought that active-positive presidents were the most desirable. Note that Barber was not concerned with what policies the president pursued. I would put Reagan in the active-positive cell, but I certainly didn’t like his policy proposals, which have been a national disaster.
So in which cell does President Obama fit? Justify your answer.
Too hard to tell....
ReplyDeleteObama's legacy will be mixed. Advocates will say he had a Congress that fought him the whole way. Critics will say he didn't try hard enough to make things work.
I saw a news show where they interviewed a guy on the same priniciple. He called them transformational and transactionsal. Bush Jr was transformational (for the worse) with 9/11 and the Irag war. Obama who was thought to be transformational just ended up being transactional.