Synopsis
The former vice president and conservative spokesman offers a personal account of his controversial years in the White House, from helping prosecute the war against Iraq to starting the "Murphy Brown" debate over family values. 300,000 first printing. $250,000 ad/promo.
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
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