Austin Little

Croft
Political Science
date
What Makes a Good President?

So what does it take to make the perfect president? Is it his politics?

Open mindedness? His Views? Or maybe its all of them.
One thing Presidents need to be able to do is act presidential. This
quality is very important when the President is interacting with people,
whether it is in public or in private. It seems that there are some Presidents
dont have this quality. Andrew Johnson had reportedly shown up to make his
speech at his inauguration intoxicated. Lyndon B. Johnson also seemed to
not have this quality, as he would often have guest or secretaries come into
the bathroom to do business while as he did his business. There are also
many other politicians that dont have this quality and thats why many
would not be able to be the president, they could maybe be the vice
president though.
The public loves Presidents who are a little extroverted. Presidents who
are extroverted are usually good speakers, and arent afraid to interact with
tons of people, get more involved with crowds. Extroverts have high selfesteem, and are able to use that to inspire those around them. Leaders like

this are much better at engaging with and entertaining important guest who
they need to work with, since they are more outgoing and likely to be
friendly to others. Quite a few of the highest rated presidents like Reagan,
Clinton, Teddy Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt were all extroverts. All of
these presidents were always well liked and were pretty good at their jobs.
Presidents need to be inspiring, and set goals for themselves and for
our nation. Good presidents get things done; Teddy Roosevelt pushed to
have the Panama Canal built no matter what. John F. Kennedy set the goal for
America to put a man on the moon and we did it. Abraham Lincoln kept the
union together and saved our nation. Inspiring leaders are the key in any
successful government; they can get our nation through the toughest times
and can lead us into the greatest of times. Hitler is another great example of
this, even though he isnt a president and one of the worst people to have
ever lived. Hitler was a man who gave amazing speeches and was incredibly
inspiring to Germans, he convinced them they could really do just about
anything and turned the poverty stricken loser of a country into a powerful,
proud economic powerhouse going into world war 2.
Funny Presidents are also well liked; Presidents who can make jokes
and make fun of themselves and not be serious all the time are good.
President Barack Obama is a fairly funny leader who often does things with
comedians, makes a lot of jokes, and makes fun of Fox News from time to

time. At the recent White House Correspondents Dinner President Obama

had his anger translator Luther (comedian Keegan-Michael Key), come on
stage to translate his mellow speech to the audience. Obama then
proceeds to make jokes about Republicans, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, and
Ted Cruz. Back in the early 2000s while the government was preparing for
George W. Bush to take over as president, Bill Clinton was preparing by
pranking the White House, one of his many pranks was removing the ws
from all the White House computer keyboards. Before Eisenhower had
become president he pulled a prank on a bunch on Army officers in Wyoming
by staging a fake Indian attack in the middle of the night.
Taking responsibility for ones actions is extremely important. Leaders
need to be able to be able to recognize when theyve messed up on
something and try their best to fix or make up for it. When the Iran-Contra
Affair was exposed President Regan did not try to cover it up, lie about it, or
try to blame it on someone else; he took full responsibility for it and was
prepared to face the consequences. President Nixon on the other hand could
have been one of the highest rated presidents had it not been for the
Watergate break-in which he denied any involvement, which he said People
have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, Im not a
crook. Ive earned everything Ive got.

Work Cited
Paragraph 1 - Hartsell, Carol. "44 Presidents, 44 Facts You Probably
Didn't Know." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 16 Apr.
2015.
Paragraph 4 - "2015 White House Dinner: Barack Obama Top 10 Jokes CNNPolitics.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.
Paragraph 5 - "Iran-Contra Affair." Iran-Contra Affair. Www.u-shistory.com, n.d. Web. 04 May 2015.
jay.croft@noc.edu