Personality politics.
The NYT had a good editorial today, proposing that Biden is able to do very big things because he keeps himself out of the spotlight (maybe he has no choice). That got me thinking about kinds of leaders and how presidencies vary by how much the personality of the president is a focal point. I'm not using the word "charisma" because I'd put Carter in the "personality" column. It would be a little jarring to call him charismatic, but for me there's no doubt that he won because of who he was. I wonder if non-personality presidents ever won for any reason other than dislike of their oponent? And maybe the converse is true? In other words, are all elections personality elections?
Could the opposite category be called "policy?" It could for Biden.
Here are my groupings. Do you agree? Disagree?
Personality
Eisenhower (another case of "charisma" not applying)
Kennedy
Johnson
Nixon
Clinton
Obama
non-Personality
Ford
GHW Bush
GW Bush
Biden
