The Presidency/Hugh Sidey
The yahoo syndrome has been detected in the White House.
God (or perhaps Senator Russell Long) help us if President Jimmy Carter succumbs. So far only Jody Powell, Hamilton Jordan and assorted other Georgians appear to be weakening, and they only mildly. There is hope before permanent disability sets in.
The yahoo syndrome is a mutation of an earlier condition. In Lyndon Johnson's time it was called "cornponeitis," and with Richard Nixon it came out as the "better people" prejudice. Both terms came from the Presidents' describing how they felt others unfairly viewed them.
The problem can be defined thusly: as long...