Reviews

In this best seller, veteran Washington Post reporter Woodward traces the impact that President Nixon's Watergate scandal has had on his five successors. Woodward presents an introduction, and then reader James Naughton takes over in a youthful voice somewhat similar to the author's own. Woodward's argument is that the fallout from the Watergate scandal has changed the political climate in Washington and affected both incumbents and candidates in various ways. Gerald Ford, for example, found his incumbency tarred by the pardon he issued Nixon, and many believe he lost the election for that reason; Jimmy Carter felt compelled to say that he would never lie to the American people and was embarrassed when he could not sustain the fiction; Ronald Reagan was unaffected until the Iran-contra scandal broke; George Bush seemed unaware that the media could turn on him once Desert Storm was behind him and could not handle the results; and Bill Clinton entered scandal after scandal and made many of the same errors of dissimulation that Nixon did and barely survived, being only the second president in history to be impeached. The common thread throughout these years was, in part, the altered attitude of the press, which at one time overlooked behaviors that now are the targets of aggressive investigative reporting. Presidential privacy in particular has faded with the times, and Woodward describes its continued erosion. Students of modern politics should find this presentation engaging. The author's persona is so authoritative and his knowledge of the subjects so deep that the listener learns a great deal. For public library and undergraduate collections.--Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.