The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadershe does to see who's with you, who's against you, and to make
sure they don't take advantage of you. He's not expecting to be
jumped, but she always is. So she's on the defensive. (Bruck
1994,63)She "has long been inclined toward bunker mentality. She tolerates
critics much less graciously than her husband.... she assigns parti-
san evil to most detraction" (Brummett 1994, 244).
Ideals versus PoliticsLike her husband, Hillary Clinton has often faced the dilemma of
having to choose between her (and her husband's) political interests
and her personal ideals. Sometimes the Clintons' political interests
have been in direct conflict with Hillary Clinton's long-standing
personal commitments. For example, though she has long been asso-
ciated with children's causes, Arkansas was sued in 1991 for under-
funding the state's child welfare system. For both Hillary and Bill,
time and experience have provided a more realistic appraisal of the
other's character and a fuller appreciation of the implications of that
character on their hopes for the relationship. This realization does
not mean that there are not continuing strong emotional ties
between them, although the nature of these ties may have changed.
At this point they may reflect mutual interests, shared experience,
common fate, respect, and perhaps even admiration for the other's
talents and skills.
The President's Character
The theory of character developed in The Psychological Assessment of
Presidential Candidates (Renshon 1996a) and presented at length in
chapter 5 is quite straightforward. It defines character in terms of
three key domains: ambition, character integrity, and relatedness.
Ambition simply refers to a candidate's or president's level of desire
to achieve his or her purposes and the depth of the skills he or she can
bring to bear on accomplishing them. Character integrity refers to
the ideals and values by which a candidate says he or she lives and his
or her fidelity to them. Both are important, but the latter is crucial.
Character integrity is to be found in those circumstances where
sticking to one's convictions entails the possibility of real loss, polit-