Standing Firm: Dan Quayle - Hardcover

Quayle, Dan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060177586 ISBN 13: 9780060177584

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1994

Synopsis

Standing Firm leaves no doubt that Dan Quayle is the most misjudged figure in modern political history. Prior to 1988, Quayle had never lost an election. Not for Congress. Not even for the Senate. Heading into that year's Republican Convention, Quayle was considered one of the party's brightest young stars - a man of unusual political instincts who, when it came to campaigning, had a reputation as a giant killer. He would become the first in his generation to hold national office, but only after a tumultuous contest that frequently put him on the defensive.
With gritty honesty and admirable self-deprecation, Quayle describes what it was like to weather that 1988 media storm, and the other squalls that followed. Poignantly, he also talks of the self-confidence and Christian faith that gave him the courage to stand firm and record some of the most noteworthy contributions of any Vice President ever. Among the high points: his coordination of America's response to a coup attempt in the Philippines, the details of which have never been reported; his bringing the family-values issue to the fore with the Murphy Brown speech - a call for action that, one year later, would even draw support from Democratic President Bill Clinton; his use of the White House Competitiveness Council to curtail harmful "overregulation"; his unreported diplomacy with Latin American leaders; and his championing of legal reform, which would earn him the strongest praise of his vice-presidency.
Quayle pulls no punches when it comes to assessing himself and other players in the Bush administration - the men and women who were his allies, and sometimes his opponents, in helping George Bush spread democracy around the world. He shares entries from his diary of the Persian Gulf crisis, offers a surprising snapshot of what the typical Bush cabinet meeting was like, describes intramural battles waged by White House power brokers, and reveals his special relationship with the President. Quayle, a former journalist, interviewed several members of the press for this book, and their contributions form a vital part of its fabric.
Standing Firm is perhaps most intriguing in its analysis of what went wrong in the 1992 election. Quayle does not hesitate to place blame where it is deserved - in fact, he reserves some of the strongest criticism for himself. Throughout, the portrait is that emerges of the former Vice President is that of a man whose good humor is exceeded only by a competence for which he has never been fully credited.

About this title

Reviews

For those convinced that Richard Nixon was finished politically in the early 1960s, that Ronald Reagan was too old and extreme for the White House even in the 1970s, and that Quayle is too mediocre, dangerous, and dumb for the Oval Office, this book serves as an antidote. It's one-part autobiography, one-part "I was there-a heartbeat away," and one-part potential presidential platform. As an autobiography, it offers new information on Quayle's life and background; as an insight into the vice presidency, it serves as a necessary counterweight to the media assault against him; as a platform, it presents a conservative who might mediate those on either side of him as well as deal with the Democrats. By revealing his positive and negative aspects, Quayle comes across as a serious, insightful politician. Building on Richard Fenno's Making of a Senator (Congressional Quarterly, 1989) and David S. Broder and Bob Woodward's The Man Who Would Be President-Dan Quayle (LJ 5/15/92), the book is an intelligent, readable, and shrewd view of Quayle's past and possible future.
--William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

No politician has been savaged by the press more than Dan Quayle. It's hardly surprising, then, that if there are any villains in his account of his vice-presidency, they're Sam Donaldson; various minions of the New York Times and Washington Post; sometimes--but not always--Dan Rather; the gadfly conservative magazine, the American Spectator; and even a supposed friend, George Will. But Quayle nurses no grudges with journalists (indeed, he seems most put out with the political handlers assigned to him in 1988 and the 1992 campaign team led by James Baker). He just wants reporters to be candid about their political biases and to show some generosity of spirit. The latter he finds especially lacking in liberals in general, except for--which may surprise many--Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton, both of whom, Quayle says, are great guys. Not that he shares much of anything politically with them; he is the staunch conservative throughout this memoir, and he also periodically asserts the influence of his Christian faith upon his thoughts and actions. What he most signally accomplishes is to show what he did during his vice-presidency, feats that included much international diplomacy and, most impressively, handling, in the absence of President Bush (en route to the Malta summit with Gorbachev), the crisis of the most serious coup against Philippine president Cory Aquino. This thoughtful book is probably the best thing ever written about the modern vice-presidency. Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060177586
• ISBN 13: 9780060177584
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416