The Man Who Would Be President: Dan Quayle (Teach Yourself) - Softcover

Woodward, Bob; Broder, David S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340579536 ISBN 13: 9780340579534

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Educational Division, 1992

Synopsis

The odds are on J. Danforth Quayle, oft-reviled, much joked about, becoming the next president of the United States. As the current vice-president, he automatically succeeds to the most powerful political office in the world if anything should happen to George Bush. And since Bush - who is 68 - collapsed at the Tokyo summit in January 1992, the state of the President's health has once again focused attention on Dan Quayle. As Bob Woodward and David S. Broder also point out in this presidential election year, since 1952 all but one elected vice-presidents have gone on to claim their parties' nominations for president, and five of the last presidents served as vice-president. "Washington Post" journalists Woodward and Broder investigate the man, his career and his influential wife Marilyn in this assessment, and ask "what if Quayle becomes President?" Bob Woodward's books include "The Final Days" and "All the President's Men" (with Carl Bernstein). He is assistant managing editor of "The Washington Post". David S. Broder is the paper's leading political columnist.

About this title

From Library Journal

Overshadowed by jokes and negative press, the real Dan Quayle finally emerges in this reprint of a January 1992 seven-part Washington Post series of articles by Broder, the dean of political columnists, and investigative reporter Woodward, author of The Commanders ( LJ 8/91). (Librarians should note that the publisher reverses the co-authors on the book jacket.) Though he lacks intellectual depth, Quayle is presented as a decent politician (and parent), who is able to get along with others and who is adept at promoting himself. In this regard he resembles William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding. In fact, even their wives shared similar temperaments: they were all talented, ambitious, and frustrated. This is likely to become the definitive work on the Quayle vice presidency. It confirms Richard F. Fenno's account of Quayle's legislative career ( Making of a Senator , Congressional Quarterly, 1989) and adds balance to the media's negative view of Quayle during the 1988 campaign (see Jules Witcover's Crapshoot , 12/91).
- William D. Pederson, Louisiana State Univ., Shreveport
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Readers will find little here to change perception of Vice President J. Danforth Quayle as a lightweight with a short attention span, a confused sense of history and lacking in "the vision thing." In a reprint of a controversial seven-part series that appeared in the Washington Post , journalists Woodward and Broder describe Quayle's 1976 entry into politics, his contributions as a senator, his aggressive campaign to be picked by George Bush as his 1988 running mate, his ordeal-by-ridicule throughout that campaign and his accomplishments as vice-president. There's an entire chapter on Quayle's golf obsession ("I can't get enough of it!") in which the authors aver that the game is a major part of his life, essential to his psychic balance and a key to understanding him. We're shown that another key is his formidable wife Marilyn, and Woodward and Broder do a fine job describing her role in her husband's career. She comes off as having more substance than he. And she is more interesting to read about in this short but informative book. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Educational Division
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0340579536
• ISBN 13: 9780340579534
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 207