Sunday, October 26, 2014

BOOK REVIEW #13 - THE FIRST MADAM PRESIDENT

The topic of a woman becoming the President of the United States is not as new as one might think. On August 21, 1964 Warner Brothers released a comedy entitled “Kisses For My President,” which starred Polly Bergen as the Independent Party Candidate, Leslie McCloud, who won the election to become the first woman President of the United States. Fred MacMurray played her husband Thad McCloud.

While Kenneth J. Kerr didn’t mention it, I believe he’d been highly influenced by the ABC drama series “Commander in Chief” in the 2005-2006 television season in writing this book. In the series Geena Davis plays the Vice-President, Mackenzie Allen who ascends to the Presidency when the President, Teddy Bridges, played by Will Layman, underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor and died.  The Attorney General had told Vice President Allen that if the President should die, the party wants her to step down from the Presidency and allow the next one in line to assume the role. Naturally she refuses.

However, in “The First Madam President (and the dirty bombs), the author has her winning the election directly.  Many of the episodes in the drama series dealt with the same issues which are contained in the book; scandal, terrorism, etc.

I found the pacing of the storyline to be somewhat uneven at times. The dialogue felt stiff as well as being somewhat unrealistic as to what someone would have said if this had been a real life event. It is for these reasons I’ve given this book 3 STARS.


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