Temperament

Charles Krauthammer is a fervent neocon who rarely has a good word for any Democrat, but he said:


Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously said of Franklin Roosevelt that he had a "second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament." Obama has shown that he is a man of limited experience, questionable convictions, deeply troubling associations (Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Tony Rezko) and an alarming lack of self-definition -- do you really know who he is and what he believes? Nonetheless, he's got both a first-class intellect and a first-class temperament. That will likely be enough to make him president.

I don't agree with most of the negative parts, but first class mind and temperament are crucial. My table of the qualities for Presidents that I remember:

..............................Intellect............Temperament

  • Kennedy 1.3 1.4
  • Johnson 2.1 2.2
  • Nixon 1.2 2.7
  • Ford 2.0 2.1
  • Carter 1.5 2.5
  • Reagan (1) 2.0 1.0
  • Reagan (2) 3.5 1.2
  • Bush I 1.5 2.0
  • Clinton 1.0 1.9
  • Bush II 3.0 3.0
  • McCain 2 4
  • Obama 1 1

Temperament is more important than usually considered. Of course there are other factors as well, especially character, which brought down Nixon and spoiled Clinton's place in history. My reading is that a first class temperament is more important than a first class intellect - a second will do, mostly. Reagan's temperament bailed him out of most problems, except when his intellect was really crumbling in his second term.

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