When people make bad decisions, odd remarks, and just plain silly mistakes, the results are sure to haunt them. But when these things happen to the president of the United States, they can change the course of history. In this clever portrait of the American presidency, Jim Cullen takes ten presidents down from their pedestals by examining key missteps in their careers--and how they transcended them. Examples include Abraham Lincoln smearing a preacher...

A treasury of presidential campaign anecdotes from the past seventy years is a compendium of lighthearted speech excerpts, interviews, and press-conference quotes from the campaigns of such presidents as FDR, Truman, and JFK.