Candidate on the Couch

Every President is essentially a mystery until his presidency begins to unfold. Often he is judged at the end of his term of office to be a very different man than at the beginning: consider Lyndon Johnson. But so hazardous is the world today, so annihilating the power in the hands of the President, that his character deserves closer scrutiny than it usually gets in the Darwinian American election process.

One man attempting such psychopolitical analysis is James David Barber, chairman of the political science department at Duke University. In a new book, The Presidential Character (Prentice-Hall), he divides the chief executives into four tidy categories:

> Active-positive (ambitious out of exuberance): Includes FDR, Truman, Kennedy.

> Active-negative (ambitious out of anxiety): Lyndon Johnson, Nixon.

>Passive-positive (compliant and other-directed): Theodore Roosevelt, Harding.

>Passive-negative (dutiful and self-denying): Washington, Eisenhower.

Barber has studied political psychology, but a character analysis far from the couch must be treated with a certain skepticism. His scheme obviously leaves a lot to be examined: Is exuberance, for instance, so easily distinguished from anxiety? Kierkegaard did not think so. Still, Barber's concept is fascinating, if not final. Since Barber's express purpose in writing his book is to encourage a hard look at men before they reach the White House, TIME asked him to estimate what kind of President George McGovern would make. Barber's analysis:

Active-positive, without a doubt. "McGovern pours it on night and day." He wastes no time, leaving a scant 20 minutes to get from his Washington office to National Airport. But does he strive for the presidency out of a compulsiveness rooted in childhood insecurity or out of enjoyment? Barber feels McGovern is clearly exhilarated by politics, and not just recently: "Back in South Dakota, he used to go to county fairs and spend hours standing in the sun, shaking hands. He really likes it."

This contrasts with Nixon, says Barber, who does not appear to enjoy politics, though he works as hard at it. An active-negative like Nixon is "always concerned with how he is managing his feelings. McGovern is not interested in raking over his own psychology."

Barber sets particular store by what he calls FIPS, an acronym for a politician's First Independent Political Success, which sets a pattern for the way a President will approach problems. McGovern's FIPS occurred when he revived the Democratic Party in Republican South Dakota singlehanded. "Judging by this episode, he would display a marked degree of organization and a persistence in tackling what might seem to others a hopeless cause." McGovern has learned to sit down and deal with people on issues, he says, in contrast to a Lyndon Johnson who always sought out his opponent's weakness in negotiating rather than debating substance and employing logic.

Loved. Barber finds similarities in the upbringing of FDR, Kennedy and McGovern--not in terms of wealth but of attitude. "In all of these families, the parents made it clear to the children that they were loved--but they were held on a long leash. The children were valued, but not used. This engenders a combination of action and happiness. The core is self-esteem."

Thus, in a thumbnail sizing up, Barber sees pluses in a President McGovern who would do his homework enthusiastically and enjoy the office, would be direct and persuasive in dealing one-to-one with individuals and be good at giving responsibility to others. On the debit side Barber wonders if McGovern would delegate too much authority. He worries that McGovern's "past doesn't give too much clue as to how good he would be at arm twisting. Would he be tough enough in the crunch with powerful men?"

Barber also questions whether McGovern's dry rhetorical style would be adequate in a nation that looks to its President for inspiration. Much as he admires the active-positive President, Barber feels that he emphasizes rational mastery "using the brain to move the feet. This may get him into trouble; he may fail to take account of the irrational in politics; not everyone he deals with sees things his way, and he may find it hard to understand why."

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