The President: A Political Novel

The President goes missing. Every corner of the White House has been searched and double-checked, without success. The Vice President is in Europe, so the decision of whether to go public or not falls upon the Chief of Staff. Just then the phone rings: someone has spotted the President sitting on a park bench near the Lincoln Memorial, his only disguise a baseball cap pulled well down over his eyes. The Commander in Chief of the most powerful military force in the world has acted strangely and the media want explanations, but the President is far from apologetic. He has an epiphany which leads him to realise what is wrong with society, the economy and government, and it is he who is asking searching questions about the status quo. This incident, which occurs about fifteen months from the end of the President’s first term, provokes a change of attitude. This worries his campaign manager who fears he is throwing away his chances of re-election, but more sinisterly, it provokes the opposition of vested interests who fear their privileges are under threat. But the President is convinced he has seen a way to make a real change, to cut through the tired arguments of both Left and Right and heal the rifts in society. In a carefully crafted dialogue, John Stewart spells out the implications and the reaction of press and public. The interest in real change aroused by the US presidential primaries makes this book timely on both sides of the Atlantic. The reform the President seeks to introduce in the USA could be just as relevant for the UK.