Playing President: My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan, and Clinton—and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush

Robert Scheer

may, 2006 · Akashic Books

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Reflections on, and interviews with, US presidents from Nixon to George W. Bush, from “one of the best reporters of our time” (Joan Didion, New York Times–bestselling author of The White Album).
 
Robert Scheer’s interviews with and profiles of US presidents have shaped journalism history. Scheer developed close journalistic relationships with Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George H. W. Bush, and his reporting on them had a tangible impact on national debate—with examples including the famed 1976 Playboy interview in which then-candidate Jimmy Carter admitted to have lusted in his heart; and the 1980 interview with the Los Angeles Times during which the senior Bush confessed to Scheer his dream of a “winnable nuclear war.”
 
In Playing President, Robert Scheer offers an unparalleled insight into the presidential mind, analyzing administrations from Nixon to George W. Bush, offering insights that will surprise the reader—particularly those with rigid preconceptions about the decision-making processes of our leaders. Also included are reprints of Scheer’s famous presidential interviews, along with previously unpublished interview transcripts and select writings.
 

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Robert Scheer is the author of six books and is currently a clinical professor of communications at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. He is a nationally syndicated columnist based at the Los Angeles Times, a contributing editor at The Nation, and a host of NPR affiliate KCRW's Left, Right, and Center.