RACHEL MARTIN, host: We're back with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
It's been called the worst job in the country. Sure, you're the leader of the free world, but is being president of the United States all it's cracked up to be? Just ask a few of the people who flirted with a run this time around.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Governor Haley Barbour saying he won't be a candidate for president.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Governor Mitch Daniels won't run for the Republican nomination.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Donald ducked, as we say.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Haley Barbour - none of them are interested.
MARTIN: Now, at least 10 Republicans have officially thrown their hats in the ring. Whoever the next president is will inherit a stack of troubles: high unemployment, an unstable housing market, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya. Besides that, your life is not your own. Every minute of every day is scheduled. Someone is always mad at you. So, why do it? What makes a person run for president?
Well, Alvin Felzenberg has spent a career studying that question. He's a presidential historian who says there are certain character traits all presidents share.
ALVIN FELZENBERG: Back in 1908, a fellow named Woodrow Wilson, four years before he was elected, said given the stresses and strains we put on the president and on the candidates, we shall be obliged always to be picking our chief magistrates for among wise and prudent athletes a very small class.
MARTIN: Wise and prudent athletes.
FELZENBERG: Yes. Given the stresses and strains, you have to have tremendous endurance he's saying.
MARTIN: Physical endurance.
FELZENBERG: Physical endurance. When Bill Clinton was at Georgetown, he taught himself to sleep four hours a night because he'd read somewhere that Napoleon had done that on the battlefield. So you have to be - you have to have stamina. I would add tremendous amount of ego, I mean that in a good way as well as a bad. You have to have great confidence in your ability to say I'm going to be in this small class that includes Washington and Lincoln and Jackson and Wilson and all the rest. This is all a very nice way of saying they're not normal.
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FELZENBERG: Most presidents do not have a great deal of hobbies. Most of them do not relax a lot with a number of intimate friends. You know, should Obama play golf with Boehner? Probably. They would both be better off if they relax with their buddies than have to work on their day off. But they're not a normal class. They have exceptional competitive drive.
MARTIN: Do we prefer our presidents to be a little on the egocentric side?
FELZENBERG: I don't think we prefer it. But in order to break through, you have to have tremendous confidence, you have to take tremendous amount of failure endured, tremendous amount of indignity. You have to be somewhat ruthless along the way as well. Most of us don't live that way. Most of us don't have the kind of mask.
MARTIN: You say mask, because people are wearing a mask to some degree.
FELZENBERG: Yes. Actually, Herbert Hoover, the sore loser, he referred to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who defeated him, as a chameleon on plaid.
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FELZENBERG: Never knew where he was on anything. He was a conservative at 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock; a liberal at breakfast; a moderate at dinner.
MARTIN: We say that these people are wearing a mask, somehow compartmentalizing their life because the job demands it. But at the same time, we demand a sense of authenticity from these people.
FELZENBERG: We demand authenticity. Now, we find it in the strangest places. When a little boy comes up to John F. Kennedy and says how did become a war hero; Kennedy said, well, it was involuntary; they sank my boat. That is somewhat spontaneous. So, and there are times it comes out.
MARTIN: How do we feel about humility? I mean, part of the lore surrounding George Washington was that he was this humble guy who didn't even want the job.
FELZENBERG: To some extent, that's very right. I mean, Grant did virtually nothing to make himself president. He was put there having won an epic war. Same thing's true with Eisenhower. Both of those presidencies were known for prudence and humility by a president who wasn't seeking the job. So sometimes, pushing power away brings the voters to you in an odd way.
MARTIN: How does that work on the campaign trail when these people are trying to get the job in the first place? How do they walk that line between seeming to be confident, believing that they are the only one who can turn the country around, at the same time not coming off as two...
FELZENBERG: Well, we want - see, we want too many things in them. We want them to be confident. We don't want to see insecurities.
MARTIN: That's tough. I mean, it's tough to endure a campaign.
FELZENBERG: Yes, it is. You know, Newt Gingrich would like to talk about taxes and America's place in the world, and wherever he goes is being asked about his campaign staff and (unintelligible). Now, Mary Todd Lincoln tended to spend a great deal of money and we know that and we know she was one of the great issues in the Lincoln administration. But he was allowed to give the Gettysburg Address without talking about her shopping patterns. So, you know, we have changed - the press has gotten nervier, OK? We've changed that.
MARTIN: That's a tough job. I don't think I'd want it.
FELZENBERG: It's a tough job, but you know, we've never had a shortage. We've never had...
MARTIN: That's true.
FELZENBERG: ...a shortage of candidates. You know, they were in the ring. It was Teddy Roosevelt who actually talked about he better be the boxer in the ring, you know, bloodied and beaten up a bit than being on the sidelines, as he said, never tasting the joys of victory or the anguish of defeat. That's very Teddy Roosevelt, isn't it?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: That's presidential historian Alvin Felzenberg. He's the author of "The Leaders We Deserved and a Few We Didn't: Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game." Alvin, thanks so much. It was a pleasure.
FELZENBERG: Hey. Thank you, Rachel. Have a great weekend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.