Playing President: Up Close with Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton

Award-winning columnist Scheer offers unique insider perspectives on every US president from Nixon to Bush, Jr. From Jimmy Carter’s lust in my heart to George Bush, Sr.‘s winnable nuclear war , Scheer offers an unparalleled insight into the presidential mind. Robert Scheer’s interviews with every US president over the past 40 years, and his profiles of them, have shaped journalistic history. Scheer developed close journalistic relationships with Presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush I. His reporting on them had a tangible impact on national debate, such as the eminent 1976 Playboy interview in which Jimmy Carter, the then-presidential candidate, admitted to have lusted in his heart; and the 1980 interview with the LA Times, during which Bush I confessed to Scheer his dream of a winnable nuclear war . Here Scheer offers an unparalleled insight into the presidential mind. Through both new writing and reprinted material, he analyses each US administration since Nixon and, including George W. Bush, offers insights that are surprising - particularly to those with rigid preconceptions about the decision-making processes of our leaders. It includes Scheer’s famous presidential interviews, along with previously unpublished interview transcripts and selected previous writings.