text: Fair enough -- but what it also reminds me of is Richard Ben Cramer's portrait of George H.W. Bush cranking out mountains of thank-you notes, making friends with every human soul he encounters, and (with Barabara) keeping that (pre-computerized) Christmas card list and willing themselves to like Ron & Nancy. It's hard to write about these sorts of things, or Richard Nixon's work ethic, or LBJ's...I don't even know what to call it...without using some fairly extreme adjectives. Such as, oh: obsessive. Or: maniacal.
  One must always be careful about these things...we can't quite draw causal lines between those extreme behaviors and the White House. There are many examples of pols who would fit comfortably into the above paragraph who never advanced beyond lower office, and not every president is, in Drum's words, a "freak of nature." Still, I think more are than are not, and it's probably worth keeping that in mind when we try to think along with our presidents -- or as we think about how much independent authority we really want them to have.
  Posted by Jonathan Bernstein at 8:47 AM
  Labels: Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, politicians, Presidency
  1 comment:
  Steven Taylor October 26, 2010 at 1:21 PM
  An excellent point.
  ReplyDelete
  Replies
  Reply
  Add comment
  Load more...
  Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
  Newer Post Older Post Home
  Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
  Jonathan Bernstein
  I'm a political scientist blogging about American politics, especially the presidency, Congress, parties, and elections.