The prospects for George Bush going down in history as one of the United States' great presidents, or even a successful one, appear slim, according to Dean Keith Simonton, a professor of psychology at UC Davis. Simonton has devised a system, detailed in his 1987 book "Why Presidents Succeed: A Political Psychology of Leadership," for evaluating U.S. presidents on a range of personality characteristics, biographical background, political experience and performance in office. By most criteria, Simonton says, Bush has not been an effective president. One of the few areas where the president has fared well is in having his vetoes sustained. But Bush has almost nothing to show in an area that Simonton weighs heavily in gauging a president's performance: initiating and pushing legislation through Congress in pursuit of a specific policy or program. Even in the realm of personality traits, there is little where Bush scores positive, Simonton says. It remains to be seen, he says, whether Bush will score another achievement usually associated with greatness: "Great presidents tend to get re-elected."