In Search of Bill Clinton Quotes

“There is also some value to inspiring a certain amount of fear in the people who work for you. When Clinton began as president, one White House veteran gave him a sage piece of advice: “Your own staff won’t take you seriously until you fire someone.” Clinton demurred, “I’m not very good at that.” He wasn’t, and it hurt him. His administration was plagued by leaks to the press. Had he made an example of even one staffer, they might have stopped, or at least slowed. In a fit of rage Clinton sometimes demanded that someone be fired. Because he didn’t have the heart to fire them himself, he’d tell a staffer to do it, but then unfire them the next day. In”
― John Gartner, In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography

“Clinton’s fundamental agreeableness comes in direct conflict at times with his hypomanic temper. After he impulsively explodes, he immediately feels bad and wants to heal the breach between himself and the person he has just attacked. The contradictory combination of a temper and empathic warmth sometimes leads to humorous situations. Ernie”
― John Gartner, In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography

“In politics it can be as important to punish your enemies as it is to reward your friends. It’s a limitation to be all carrot and no stick.”
― John Gartner, In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography

“Machiavelli once said that if a prince had to choose between being loved and feared, he is better off being feared. Or as Lyndon Johnson put it more crudely, “If you have their balls in your pocket, their hearts and minds will follow.” Scratch away the thin veneer of civilization and the psychology of human leadership is not that different from that of our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. The alpha male rules because the other males fear he will physically hurt them if they challenge him. But”
― John Gartner, In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography

“In fact, Clinton feels others’ pain to the point that he not infrequently openly weeps for them, and his teary response is so infectious that it can trigger tears in others. This creates the opportunity for powerful political theater, all the more powerful because it is genuinely felt. Leopoulos was with Clinton in New Hampshire, and recalled how Clinton’s empathy routinely triggered an epidemic of tears. “He had to hear everyone’s story. Some of the people were crying, and had terribly sad stories. Clinton started crying, too, and then we were all crying.” Stephanopoulos recalled one such encounter during the New Hampshire primary: “When Mary Annie Davis confessed tearfully that she had to choose each month between buying food or medicine, he knelt down, took her hand, and comforted her with a hug. Even the hardest bitten reporters in the room were wiping tears from their eyes.”27”
― John Gartner, In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography