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This text offers a concise single-volume survey of presidential scandals in the United States that looks at the behaviour and public image of every president from George Washington to Bill Clinton. The scandals covered include Franklin Pierce's drunkenness and JFK's extra-marital affairs.
This book explores presidential power through an analysis of the ways that U.S. presidents attempt to manage scandals. While presidents routinely stonewall to block or limit investigations into their alleged transgressions or, in some cases, cooperate with investigators, this book proposes the existence of a third way of responding to scandals—a “backfire” or the creation of a counter-scandal to try to extinguish the original scandal. The existence of possible backfires is surveyed through case studies of the major scandals that impacted the Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and Trump administrations. The development of this form of scandal response has meaningful implications concerning the growth of presidential power and its impacts on the functioning of the U.S. political system and the quality of American democracy. Changes in partisanship, the media environment, and the public’s view of the presidency and government are topics covered in the book’s explanation of the trends in scandal responses.
This text offers a concise single-volume survey of presidential scandals in the United States that looks at the behaviour and public image of every president from George Washington to Bill Clinton. The scandals covered include Franklin Pierce's drunkenness and JFK's extra-marital affairs.
Covers the Credit Mobilier and Whiskey Ring scandals of the Grant administration; the Teapot Dome scandal of the Harding administration; the Watergate scandal of the Nixon Administration; the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan administration.
A new afterword by Max Holland details developments since the original 2003 publication, including the revelation of Mark Felt as the infamous “Deep Throat,” the media’s role in the scandal, both during and afterwards, including Bob Woodward’s Second Man. Arguably the greatest political scandal of twentieth-century America, the Watergate affair rocked an already divided nation to its very core, severely challenged our cherished notions about democracy, and further eroded public trust in its political leaders. The 1972 break-in at Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel--by five men acting under the direction of a Republican president's closest aides and his staff--created a constitutional crisis second only to the Civil War and ultimately toppled the Nixon presidency. With its sordid trail of illegal wiretapping, illicit fundraising, orchestrated cover-up, and destruction of evidence, it was the scandal that made every subsequent national political scandal a "gate" as well. A disturbing tale made famous by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men, the Watergate scandal has been extensively dissected and vigorously debated. Keith Olson, however, offers for the first time a "layman's guide to Watergate," a concise and readable one-volume history that highlights the key actors, events, and implications in this dark drama. John Dean, John Ehrlichman, H. R. Haldeman, G. Gordon Liddy, John Mitchell, Judge John Sirica, Senator Sam Ervin, Archibald Cox, and the ghostly "Deep Throat" reappear here--in a volume designed especially for a new generation of readers who know of Watergate only by name and for teachers looking for a straightforward summary for the classroom. Olson first recaps the events and attitudes that precipitated the break-in itself. He then analyzes the unmasking of the cover-up from both the president's and the public's perspective, showing how the skepticism of politicians and media alike gradually intensified into a full-blown challenge to Nixon's increasingly suspicious actions and explanations. Olson fully documents for the first time the key role played by Republicans in this unmasking, putting to rest charges that the "liberal establishment" drove Nixon from the White House. He also chronicles the snowballing public outcry (even among Nixon's supporters) for the president's removal. In a remarkable display of nonpartisan unity, leading public and private voices in Congress and the media demanded the president's resignation or impeachment. In a final chapter, Olson explores the Cold War contexts that encouraged an American president to convince himself that the pursuit of "national security" trumped even the Constitution. As America approaches the thirtieth anniversary of the infamous Watergate hearings and the overreach of presidential power is again at issue, Olson's book offers a quick course on the scandal itself, a sobering reminder of the dangers of presidential arrogance, and a tribute to the ultimate triumph of government by the people.
This timely and engaging book challenges the conventional wisdom on media and scandal in the United States. The common view holds that media crave and actively pursue scandals whenever they sense corruption. Scandal and Silence argues for a different perspective. Using case studies from the period 1988-2008, it shows that: Media neglect most corruption, providing too little, not too much scandal coverage; Scandals arise from rational, controlled processes, not emotional frenzies - and when scandals happen, it’s not the media but governments and political parties that drive the process and any excesses that might occur; Significant scandals are indeed difficult for news organizations to initiate and harder for them to maintain and bring to appropriate closure; For these reasons cover-ups and lying often work, and truth remains essentially unrecorded, unremembered. Sometimes, bad behavior stimulates an avalanche of media attention with demonstrable political consequences, yet other times, equally shoddy activity receives little notice. This book advances a theoretical model to explain these differences, revealing an underlying logic to what might seem arbitrary and capricious journalism. Through case studies of the draft and military scandals involving Dan Quayle, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and John Kerry; alleged sexual misconduct of politicians including but not limited to Clinton; and questionable financial dealings of Clinton and George W Bush, the book builds a new understanding of media scandals which will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the relationship between media and democracy today.
Discusses political scandals in the USA including Watergate, the Iran-Contra scandal, Whitewater and political scandals in Congress.
Discusses scandals within the presidential administrations of Ulysses S. Grant, Warren G. Harding, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.
Never before have Americans been more concerned about the moral dimensions of presidential leadership. What role should morality play in the decision making of our most powerful elected official? What did the Founders think about the significance of morality in this cherished political institution? Does the private behavior of a president influence his or her ability to lead our nation? In The Scarlet Thread of Scandal, eminent scholar Charles W. Dunn turns a penetrating eye to the history of presidential scandals to answer these and other pressing questions. Scandals are surely nothing new in the White House_ever since the creation of the republic, presidents have made morally questionable judgments, whether constitutional, ethical, legal, or personal. In eloquent and judicious prose, Dunn chronicles the numerous controversies in presidential history, paying particular attention to their impact on the American people and public memory. The Scarlet Thread of Scandal will make all Americans think differently about past, present, and future presidents.
Scandals and high political office regularly coincide. Over the last five decades, with the world watching the American president as its preeminent international figure, scandals affecting the president have had both international origins and international consequences. Every president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump has faced scandal but only a handful have faced a scandal so large that it threatened impeachment or even the political system itself. Hence, this is a study of five scandals or in the case of Clinton and Trump, scandalous presidencies that produced impeachments · Nixon and Watergate · Reagan and Iran-Contra · Clinton and Impeachment · Bush and the 2000 election/Trump and the 2016 election · Trump and Impeachments Along the way, several trends have shaped the course of presidential scandals. One set has been political. Scandal operates in tandem with partisanship. The intensity of party divisions was obviously a factor in creating the context for all the scandals discussed. Scandal also springs from personality. Few would disagree that the character of Nixon, Clinton and Trump was the seedbed for the scandals they faced. But more broadly, it seems the traits required of a successful presidential candidate have changed. What would once have damned a candidate is no longer an insurmountable obstacle. What blocked Gary Hart in 1988 could not stop Donald Trump in 2016. The second group of trends stem from the changing media landscape. Richard Nixon operated in a world dominated by major TV networks. Clinton in a time that saw the emergence of cable channels such as Fox News that tailored their coverage to the biases of their viewers; and Trump in a world of internet websites and social media, where securing attention takes precedence over accuracy. These trends have added fuel to gossip and therefore scandal. As the 2016 election demonstrated, they have also enabled a new form of cyber warfare that probes US weaknesses by fostering internal disunity. The question now is: Does scandal still carry a cost? In 2024, the jury is still deliberating.