it is not everything. Personality and style do not account for experience, intellect, and temperament. Neustadt does n excellent job of showing how all of these factors relate and combine to form a president and a presidential style. He shows how these factors influence presidential decision making as well as contribute to presidential inadequacies and pitfalls of administrations.
Neustadt also discusses everything that he believes attributes to presidential power. In doing so, he is constantly referring back to the original three cases studied, commenting on them and introducing other relevant experiences. His topics range from the power to persuade, reputation, prestige, and personalities of men in office. In the course of this he reveals what he believes to be the most important traits of any president. He feels that presidents need not necessarily be a genius, but rather somewhat intelligent with outstanding temperament, which I take to mean personality, as well as the experience in government to understand the duties and effectively serve as president.
Neustadt then examines subsequent presidents in situational terms. He begins with Kennedy and the final president he examines in Reagan. He examines Ford, Carter, and the one aspect of Reagan's presidency on transitional terms and speaks on the problems that presidential transitions can cause. He also uses the experiences of Kennedy with the Bay of Pigs as excellent background and primary information in this study.
Neustadt concludes his examination of presidential leader
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