Title: Prisoners of the White House : the isolation of America's presidents and the crisis of leadership /
Authors: Walsh, Kenneth T.
Year: 2013
Subjects: White House (Washington, D.C.); Presidents United States; Presidents United States Social life and customs.; Political leadership United States; United States Politics and government.
Abstract: One can scarcely imagine an environment outside the nation's penal system that is more isolating than the Executive Mansion, a habitat almost guaranteed to keep America's commander in chief far removed from everyday life. In fact, isolation is emerging as one of the most serious dilemmas facing the American presidency. This bubble of isolation is real, intense, hard to pierce, and hard to find your way out of. Walsh gets inside the bubble and punctures the mythology surrounding the presidency.
Contents: Introduction : trapped in "the bubble" -- Four who lost the people. Lyndon B Johnson : from outreach to isolation ; Richard Nixon : in the bunker ; Jimmy Carter : good intentions, bad outcomes ; George H.W. Bush : missing the obvious -- Two defiant princes. John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush : strange bedfellows -- Five who stayed connected. Franklin D. Roosevelt : reading the nation's pulse with Eleanor ; Harry Truman : connected to everyman ; Ronald Reagan : middle-class roots ; Bill Clinton : escapes from disaster ; Barack Obama : beyond the beltway -- From wizards to chicken peddlers. The wisards of the White House ; Breaking out of the bubble.