Presidential Character vs. Circumstance

In analyzing the top ten successful presidents, Franklin Roosevelt is well recognized as one of the most successful presidents in American History. He’s one of the very few presidents that fit into both of the models I will be covering; Stephen Skowrenek’s prediction of presidential success based on the circumstances and James Barber’s theory of presidential success based on presidential character. FDR, as he’s called, to avoid the mix up with his older relative and former president, Theodore Roosevelt. Franklin Roosevelt is credited for defining the modern presidency because he expanded the powers of the president probably beyond any president before his time. This essay Focuses on Franklin Roosevelt an how both his character and place in political time affected his success.
Character;
James Barber explains the potential successful president as someone with an “active positive” president. He defined being active positive in his book, The Presidential Character as, “those who appear to have fun in the vigorous exercise of presidential power… take action rather than waiting for action to come to them…self need, not sacrifice gratification for achievement… when seen outward, share a sense of self developing…”. The active positive president genuinely enjoys what he does. He further breaks the active positive personality down into four qualities; A conviction of capability- a belief in self ability for the job; A sense of the future as possible- an optimist outlook on things and a sense of the future as possible, regardless of the past and the openness to experiment to change things; A Repertoire of Habits – The ability to adapt to situations, a malleable personality to fit each situation that presents itself. He is eager to learn, and everything learned is seen as “bag of tricks rather than a way of life.”; The communication of excitement- the ability to convey