In this election season, anyone can run as a write-in candidate – but not everyone knows where to go or how to order breakfast if they win.
Now those who need a cheat sheet for their first day in the White House can pull out How to Be President: What to Do and Where to Go Once You’re in Office.
The slim book is almost pocket-sized, but it’s full of information vital to a commander-in-chief. It lets you know, for example, that as president you will not have to make your bed or do your laundry (housekeepers are on hand for this), but will have to foot the dry-cleaning bill yourself.
The stuffy politics that weigh down debates and civics textbooks are absent, leaving a breezy volume that looks at the details of the life and routine of the most powerful politician in the world.
That’s not to say the book isn’t well researched – references are listed in the back. But it keeps history to a minimum, limited to things like a list of exotic White House pets, such as the alligator presented to John Quincy Adams by the Marquis de Lafayette.
Brought to you by Chronicle Books, the company behind The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook series, How to Be President has the familiar matter-of-fact explanation of what to do in situations most citizens will never face.
Though the book does not deal with situations as exotic and dire as those in the Worst-Case handbooks, it does offer a few contingency plans.
Not only does the book explain how to read a teleprompter, it tells you what to do if the teleprompter suddenly fails.
Another portion gives tips on breaking bad news to the country, suggesting that Friday evening is a good time because people pay the least attention to the news on Saturday.
How to Be President is the perfect guide for those wondering what the next president will face his first day in the Oval Office – or for anyone who thinks they could do a better job.
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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