Emotional Well-Being

Prof. Fred Greenstein recently passed per the New York Times, December 16, 2018. Dr. Greenstein taught politics at Yale, Wesleyan and Princeton. Notably, he wrote and evaluated many of our presidents beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When he arrived at Princeton, Nixon was president, and Greenstein stated, how anyone could as politically gifted as president, Richard M Nixon end up “Succumbing to what was plainly a self-inflicted political disaster?”

At one time, Dwight Eisenhower was perceived as a disengaged golf playing president. Prof. Greenstein began thinking about a president’s effectiveness as a leader, rather than by their policies or accomplishments. This professor devised a checklist of six qualities or criterion used to evaluate a president. These criteria included: public communication; organizational capacity; political skills; vision; cognitive style; and emotional intelligence. He believed that emotional intelligence was the most important and can be found in his book “The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Clinton.”

While researching material about Pres. Eisenhower, the professor changed the current view regarding this president. Dr. Greenstein concluded that various memos that Eisenhower had dictated off the top of his head were extremely well reasoned and well written. Not only that, he believed that Eisenhower was a deep and careful thinker and politically skillful somewhat like Machiavellian. He also believed that Eisenhower’s poor communication skills were well calculated and deliberately vague in order to appear more genial. However, behind his comments, Eisenhower was in full control. He was pulling strings and manipulating his subordinates. In other words, he was willing to play the fool to achieve his political ends.

Regarding emotional intelligence, Dr. Greenstein believed that intelligence can be measured by “the president’s ability to manage his emotions and turn them to constructive purposes, rather than being dominated by them and allowing them to diminish his leadership.” Regarding President Clinton’s second term, which centered around impeachment, the professor wrote, that without emotional intelligence “The presidency is a defective instrument of democratic governance.”

To Be Continued