Through the Broken Window

In his book, The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House, James David Barber puts forth the theory that a president's style of leadership and the way his presidency turns out is a result of his personality and pattern of thinking. Barber maps presidential character on two different lines: active vs. passive, and positive vs. negative.

Using combinations of activity and outlook, he comes up with four typologies:

Adaptive: Relatively high self-confidence, and will usually work hard to better himself and the country. He tries to use power in a generally beneficial manner, and enjoys his office and his power.

Compulsive: Works extremely hard to better the country, but finds no joy in his position or in his power. He is often aggressive, ambitious, perfectionistic, and anxious.

Compliant: Weak self-esteem, and is fairly easy to manipulate. He masks this lack of self-confidence with a superficial optimism, and a generally hopeful attitude. Their most important priority is generally a search for validation and affection.

Withdrawn: In politics out of a sense of duty, because he feels he has to be. He generally is not a natural politician, and neither gains much happiness from serving as president nor puts a large amount of effort into his presidency.

At first, I thought I'd prefer to have the Withdrawn type. (Think George Washington and Calvin Coolidge.) But now, I'm not sure. Using the veto to check a too-powerful Congress might be necessary and desirable in some cases.

Thoughts?