ABSTRACT
Politics is in many ways a loving business. Alongside the conflict and tension, politicians devote much of their attention to the caressing of egos, the embracing of the lonely, the inclusion of the left out. The passive-positive types are political lovers. William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding—the two chief executives who bracketed Wilson's Presidency—illustrate this type. One was an epitome of propriety and the other his ethical opposite. Taft had opinions on the big issues of his time—on the tariff, conservation, labor, and so on—but his political world view was, with one exception, amorphous and uncertain. He was a conservative progressive, but above all he was a law-lover. Taft's political style reflected his judicial stance toward the world and drew on his characteristic geniality. In character, Harding displays even more clearly than Taft the typical passive-positive theme: the hunger for love, the impelling need to confirm one's lovableness. Harding and Taft had in common the passive-positive's open, compliant—and vulnerable—character.
