The President's Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

This recently published book explores the relationships between the current and former Presidents in the modern age. Since Harry Truman was elected relationships between Presidents have become an integral part of the success of those in office. With modern medicine and many younger men being elected President we have scene at various times the President's Club grow to as many as six when Bill Clinton was President.

Harry Truman began the modern day President's club when he brought Herbert Hoover back into the service of the country. Hoover, an outcast in the FDR years, had been a hero long before his Presidency, his efforts in food relief and distribution in World War I made him an easy choice for Truman to use in saving Europe after the second war.

Not all relationships have been as smooth. Eisenhower and Truman had a terrible hand off and did not really make piece until Ike left office, and especially at the funeral of JFK.

JFK being young needed Eisenhower and Ike complied, offering advice and political cover after the Bay of Pigs.

LBJ embraced Truman and Eisenhower, Ike in fact at times was the bellicose voice in his ear over Vietnam.

For readers whose sense of history begins in the seventies Richard Nixon, as in all things, is as complex a character as one will find. While in office his thoughts to blackmail LBJ to keep him on the sidelines and out of public comment might have been the precursor to Watergate. The talk of breaking into The Brookings Institute is shown to have been to get some letters of Johnson's detailing his letters on the political nature of his bombing halt before the 1968 election. Of course we also see how Nixon's actions might well have met the level of treason as he interfered in the Paris peace talks during the 68 campaign.

Bill Clinton's relationships are perhaps the most affecting to one's spirit of what could be if politicians still worked together. Clinton took advice from the noted foreign policy expert Nixon and compared his death to the loss of his mother. Gerald Ford tried to help Clinton in his impeachment scandal, and while he could not keep the Republicans at bay Clinton never forgot his efforts. Of course the most interesting is Clinton's relationships with the Bush's. George Bush who has become his surrogate father and W who Clinton says one cannot help but like.

Clinton the consummate politician warned Gore and his fellow Democrats that underestimating Bush the second would be a mistake. Many have heard the joke W told about Clinton waking from one of his surgeries and being surrounded by his loved ones" Hillary, Chelsea, and my dad." He was not kidding. The relationship developed so far that when Bush the elder was honored at 87 at The Kennedy Center that Bill Clinton professed his belief that the elder " could do virtually no wrong in his eyes" and that he loved him. It is interesting to note that as the multitudes and generations of Bush's lined up for a family photo that Neil Bush shouted for Clinton " the brother from another mother" to join the picture. And he did. As Clinton said, "every family needs a black sheep."

This is just a small sampling of the book. It is an easy read and it is very interesting. For me the takeaway is simple. If Presidents when they leave the office hold the office above party and the country above party why can that not happen when they are in office and more importantly in Congress.

I have observed that politicians of both stripes start to seem more sensible after the campaign is over, after they no longer have to raise money and rouse the base. The question we have to ask ourselves is how do we get these sensible people to be the ones that are running. They " are " the ones running by the way in most cases, they just cannot be sensible and get elected.

We need to ask ourselves why.