In his book The Presidential Character, James David Barber tries to accomplish what voters have been trying to do in America for over 200 years--set forth a way of predicting how a candidate would do in the White House. While this may seem a near-impossible task, Barber is clearly able to indicate the nature of the office being sought, the characteristics sought in a candidate, and the characters of a number of the men who have worked in the Oval Office. Barber uses these characteristics and his analyses of specific presidents as a way of determining after the fact what one might ask before the fact in deciding how a certain character trait will serve for good or ill in a man (or woman) in the White House. Barber himself refers to his work as a "strange book" that was written over a period of 25 years. Ultimately, it is a book that raises as many questions as it answers but that at least starts the reader considering the nature of the issues involved in selecting a President or a candidate for any other high office.
Barber begins with a consideration of that elusive component so much discussed in the last election, character, as part of a pattern by which Barber believes we can judge how a given candidate will behave and perform in office:
The burden of this book is that the crucial differences can be anticipated by an understanding of a potential President's character, his world view, and his style.
Barber feels that a President's personality is patterned and that the individual's character, world view, and style fit together in a dynamic package that can be understood in psychological terms. Barber further states that
. . . the best way to predict a President's character, world view, and style is to see how they were put together in the first place. . . I am not about to argue that once you know a President's personality you know everything. But, as the cases will demonstrate, the degree and quality of a Presiden...