From what I saw, he came across as serious and grave, which is not surprising considering the crisis situation he's facing. It's not often in this history of this country that the Speaker of the House assumes the presidency, if you know what I mean.
The staff was yammering on about "who's in charge," and he made it very clear to them, with a single sentence and a glance, "I am in charge." He's a businessman, and he means business, unlike Bartlett the college professor.
He did come off as a bit cold and formal, which some might interpret as "evil," but it'll be interesting to see how the relationship between the principals and Goodman's character develops.
People have said the objective is to make Republicans look bad. Not in the way they think.
The objective is to blame 'Republicans' for the ratings death of WW, so that the f$%#wads running the networks don't have to tolerate a regular Republican character on tv (UNLESS it's a caricature that will be bitchslapped down by the left or give up being Republican to 'do the right thing' every episode--think Alex P. Keaton). Their idea is now to point to Goodman's character and say "see, they hated HIM even MORE. Musta been the right that turned them off."