First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Pursuit of Power Audiobook (Free)

From the author of the New York Times bestsellers First Women and The Residence, a romantic, news-making look at the guys who are next in line to the most powerful office in the world-the vice presidents of the modern era-from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden to Mike Pence.

Vice presidents occupy a unique and important position, living partway in the spotlight and component in the wings. From the forty-seven vice presidents who have served america, fourteen have grown to be president; eight of the about First in-line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, as well as the Quest for Power have risen to the Oval Workplace due to a president’s death or assassination, and one became chief executive after his boss’s resignation. John Nance Garner, FDR’s first vice chief executive, famously stated the vice presidency is usually ‘not value a bucket of warm piss’ (afterwards cleansed up to ‘warm spit’). But factors have changed significantly lately. In interviews with more than two hundred people, including former vice presidents, their family, and insiders and confidants of every chief executive since Jimmy Carter, Kate Andersen Brower pulls back again the drape and unveils the sometimes chilly, sometimes close, and always complicated romantic relationship between our modern presidents and their vice presidents.

Brower took us in the lives of the Light House staff and gave us a romantic look at the contemporary First Ladies; today, in her personal style, she presents us to the second most powerful guys in the globe, discovering the lives and jobs of thirteen contemporary vice presidents-eight Republicans and five Democrats. And she shares surprising revelations about the relationship between previous Vice President Joe Biden and former Leader Barack Obama and how Vice President Mike Pence and Chief executive Donald Trump interact behind closed doors.

From rivals to coworkers, there’s a very tangible sense of admiration mixed with jealousy and resentment in almost all these interactions between the number two and his boss, even the best ones, Brower reveals. Vice presidents owe their placement to the chief executive, a connection that affects not merely the way they are recognized but also their possible future like a presidential candidate-which is certainly linked, for better or even worse, to the chief executive they provide. George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan experienced a famously prickly relationship through the 1980 primary, yet Bush wouldn’t normally have already been elected chief executive in 1988 without Reagan’s high acceptance ranking. Al Gore’s 2000 loss, meanwhile, could possibly be attributed to the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and Costs Clinton’s impeachment. Current Vice Chief executive Mike Pence is normally walking a high-stakes politics tightrope as he attempts to reassure stressed Republicans while remaining on his boss’s great side.

This rich dynamic between the president as well as the vice president hasn’t been fully explored or understood. Engaging and deeply reported, grounded in history and politics, and full of previously untold and incredibly personal stories, First In Line pierces the veil of secrecy enveloping this historic political office to provide us a candid family portrait of what it’s really like to be a heartbeat away.