William Jefferson Clintonof close associates or the putative "trying to be loved by everybody"
that is a staple of journalistic portraits of Clinton (e.g., Purdurn
1996). Such a score is also consistent with Clinton's avoidance of war
and search for peace in Haiti, Bosnia, and the Middle East, as well as
the numerous scandals and rumors of scandals in his administration.
Another way to interpret Clinton's motive profile is to compare
him to previous U.S. presidents. (With the motives of Clinton and
all previous presidents standardized on the same scales, and with the
three motives assumed to be independent and orthogonal, the "most
similar" president can be defined as that president whose score has
the smallest Pythagorean or three-dimensional distance from Clin-
ton's.) Based on his 1992 announcement speech, Clinton most
closely resembled Lyndon Johnson.^2 Based on his 1993 inaugural, he
had become more like Jimmy Carter.
What does it mean to say that Clinton "resembled" Johnson or
Carter? Obviously it does not imply that he has the same personal-
ity, would take the same actions, or would have the same outcomes.
Rather, it suggests possible similarities of goals and goal-setting
styles; of reactions to the political process; and of personal strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and vulnerabilities. Both Johnson and
Carter had achievement motive scores that were high and greater
than their power motivation. Similarly, both entered office with
ideals and visions, only to depart several years later mired in frustra-
tion and defeat. Like Clinton in 1993, Carter in 1977 also
approached Washington as an outsider, full of ideas for improve-
ment. By the summer of 1979, however, he retreated to Camp
David, his presidency sunk by economic problems and the malaise of
the political process. (Chapter 7 discusses the importance of balance
between the achievement and power motives in democratic politics
and the difference between politics and business, in which high
achievement motivation typically leads to success.)
On the other hand, Clinton's inaugural power motive score was a
considerable increase over that of his announcement speech and even
approached the level of his achievement motivation. From a motiva-
tional perspective, therefore, the most critical question of Clinton's first term
was whether his power motive would be high enough to balance his achieve-
ment motive. In everyday language, would Clinton's capacity to "enjoy
power"—to take pleasure from the political scrimmages of the pres-