oblematic economy,which alternated between bursts of inflation and slowdowns in production throughoutCarter’s term. Page 136“...a president rarely goes unpunished for economic distress that occurs on hiswatch”.Page 137A president who studied the Carter experience would be alert to the dangers ofraising unrealistic expectations, failing to build bridges to Capitol Hill, and overloadingthe national policy agenda. One who ignored Carter’s failures would risk repeating them,which is precisely what President Bill Clinton did in his 1993 effort to reform thenational health care system. Clinton too commissioned a task force that had acontroversial head (his wife), met in secret, and did not consult with Congress. Page141Cognitive Style---Carter was better at the “specific than the general”. He lacked thecapacity of an Eisenhower to get at the heart of a problem or the ability of a Nixon to setlong- run goals. Page 143Emotional Intelligence —For all of his self-composure, Jimmy Carter falls in thecategory of chief executives whose emotional susceptibilities complicate their publicactions. Page 142What Carter did have in common with Johnson and Nixon was an emotionallydriven limitation in his ability to get the most out of what otherwise were highlyimpressive abilities.Page 143.Ronald Reagan was the son of an alcoholic, but “that did not stop him fromgrowing up with a rosy disposition”. As an adult he had a number of traits that arecommon in children of alcoholics, including discomfort with conflict, remoteness inpersonal relationships, and a tendency to put a rosy gloss on harsh realities. Page 146 &147Reagan’s political style was molded by his enthusiasm for FDR, his unionexperience, and his background as actor. He took Roosevelt’s use of the presidentialpulpit as the prototype for his own political leadership. His experience as a lobar leaderhelped shape the bar...
