Types of Presidential Personality in Barber's Habitual Action Patterns - Essay Example

James Barber explains some of the personalities that a voter can look for.
The first thing to look for is activity-passivity. How much time and energy does the person employ in his campaigns, a leader who does not give enough time in his campaigns will likely not be an active president (Barber 5). Then, one should also look at the positive-negative effect. How well does the person like what he is doing? (Barber 5)
These two factors are enough to define someone’s personality because they describe a person’s life. In summary, the following are the four main categories that describe a presidential personality.

Active-positive: The man has high self-esteem and shows consistency in the activities he carries out. In addition, throughout his life, he has shown a high level of productivity and conservation of the environment. In connection to this, he sees himself as achieving some of his personal goals (Barber 6).

Active-negative: This type of leader shows a high level of commitment, however, he does not show a high level of emotion for that job. On top of that, he behaves like someone who is trying to run away from anxiety. He is also ambitious and power-seeking and has an aggressive feeling which makes him have a problem in managing the environment (Barber 6).

Positive-positive: These types of leaders depend a lot on other people’s judgment and they are not assertive. The contradiction here is high optimism and low self-esteem. In addition, they always make politics to be soft. However, because they depend on other people’s judgment, they are likely to be disappointed (Barber 6).

Passive-negative: These types of people are always in politics because they feel that it is the right place to be. They do not enjoy being in politics and they also do not have enough experience. Although a person of this nature normally does well in other areas in politics, they are always underperformers (Barber 6).

President Obama can be said to be an active-positive president. This is because he has high self-esteem and shows consistency in what he does. For example, during his two terms, he has invested a lot of emotions and finances his campaigns. In addition, he is passionate about what he does. It is not that someone forced him to become the president, but he decided out of his will to become the president. Also, he was the first, black president of Harvard school of law. From this, someone can tell that he started getting into politics at a tender age. Every time he talks, you see a lot of optimism in him, just recently he unveiled the Obama care. A health program where every American is expected to benefit. Of interest also to note is that during elections he never showed any sign of not being content with the results. The way he handled the issue of Crimea and the recession that has hit America, indicates that appositive leader. The president has also never shied away from handling terrorism, in 2011, he successfully lead the country in finding Osama Bin Laden.

The former president George W. Bush can be said to be an active negative president. The president managed to do a lot of things, for example, it is during his tenure that the US soldiers managed to get to Iraq. However, many people saw him as an aggressive person and that he was finishing what his father had started. The former president showed a lot of commitment to the presidency. Apart from that during his second election, many people saw him as not wanting to hand overpower. This is because there was a tight race between him and AL gore who was seen as the best candidate by many people.

The former president, Clinton was a very quiet president, before he acted on anything he made sure that he had studied it properly. In regards to the presidency, he never showed that he had any intentions of staying for more than two terms in the office. In connection to this, the former president can be said passive–positive. These types of leaders will always show a lot of commitment to their goals. However, when it comes to politics, they never enjoyed it much.

The first four presidents of America also showed a varied range of personalities. For example, George first Washington was the first president to form the first American president. It is said that when he formed the government the citizens felt that there were some important activities that were supposed to have been given the first priority. Therefore, the president was the kind of man who was laid back and reserved, he never sought anything for innovation. Therefore, the president can be said to be passive negative. To conclude with he never wanted to go for the second term but many people wanted him to go back.

John Adams was an impatient man and a worried president, an active negative character. He was very partisan and he almost brought France and US to war. In addition, he used to be withdrawn. He was the first president to preside over America during political regression. Read More