Presidential Character: Everybody Has One

Abstract

Richard Nixon’s strange behavior following the break-in at Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Complex is among the many bits of information that made many wonder about the president’s psychological makeup. Exemplary of this curiosity about a president’s psychological shortcomings was comedian/mimic David Frye’s depiction of Nixon devolving into Humphrey Bogart’s Captain Queeg from The Caine Mutiny.¹ One political scientist became well known as a result of our curiosity about Nixon’s psychology. James David Barber had predicted, back in 1969, what Nixon’s response to a scandal might be. Barber’s good fortune begs the question, “Can we predict the behavior of elected officials, especially the president?”