Why Presidents Succeed: A Political Psychology of Leadership.

• Author: Baker, Ross K.

Why Presidents Succeed: A Poltical Psychology of Leadership. Dean Keith Simonton. Yale University Press, $22.50. This book is part of a wounded tradition of presidential scholarship, The failure of the field can be seen in the fact that Richard Neustadt's Presidential Power still ranks among the preeminent texts. Taking nothing away from it, it is a quarter century old and, despite recent updates, remains something of a period piece. That Neustadt continues to hold such a prominent place in the literature of the presidency tells us some things both about the office and those who choose to study it. And Simonton's failures, and occasional strengths, help explain why we don't have better books about those who occupy the Oval Office.

What hinders the study of the presidency? First, there's the problem of access. The closer scholars can get to an institution, the better the research is likely to be. Not surprisingly, then, the literature on Congress is abundant and of high quality, and research on the House of Representatives is better and more plentiful than that on the U.S. Senate, in large measure because the House is more open. While the Supreme Court in its icy palace might seem to be an unlikely focus of scholarship, it is actually quite rich, if for no other reason than the fact that opinions are published and reflect on both the reasoning and philosophy of their authors,

True, the presidency itself is very visible, but its operations are hidden from the public eye, And ex-presidents haven't helped the cause of scholarship much. They may endow huge libraries but they have yet to write any revealing veto-and-tell memoirs, Jimmy Carter's, the most recent, is virtually unreadable; Nixon's are so suffused with wounded innocence that they should have been printed on Kleenex. The literature of White House staff and advisers is similarly flawed-ranging from Brzezinski's sententiously tided Power and Principle to Califano's arrogantly tided Governing America, Their pomposity is enough to make a person long for a presidential memoir entifled, Gabbing with Gorbo or Putting the Red Phone on Hold,

To be sure, we do know bits and pieces about individual presidents, particularly recent ones, because of the long primary season. But much of it may be useless in understanding bow they govern. Campaign reporters uncovered that Ronald Reagan's favorite meal is macaroni and cheese and that Richard Nixon put ketchup on his scrambled eggs. But looking back on...