John Dickerson discusses the complexities of the American presidency in "The Hardest Job in the World." Our founding fathers visualized a president who would respect the balance of powers written into the constitution. The founders also understood that the chief executive would need the authority to make key decisions in a crisis. Whoever is elected to the presidency needs to be competent, measured in his judgment, courageous, and empathetic. In addition, he should be forward-thinking, surround himself with first-rate advisers, delegate responsibility strategically, and promote America's interests at home and abroad.

In this detailed, well-researched, and timely volume, Dickerson reminds us that politics is not for the faint of heart. Throughout the years, candidates for the presidency have attacked one another viciously and unfairly. Dickerson contrasts the rough-and-tumble meanness of presidential campaigns with the actual work involved in governing a large and diverse country. The author also points out that social media and the twenty-four news cycle news cycle have shone a harsh spotlight on our elected officials and, in particular, have raised our expectations of what a chief executive can accomplish.

The book is divided into three parts: "The Office of the Presidency," "Presidential Campaigns," and "The Way We Live Now." Dickerson includes evocative black and white photographs and supports his ideas with quotations from primary and secondary sources. This is not an objective treatise. Dickinson freely offers his opinions about such political figures as Newt Gingrich, Michael Dukakis, the George Bushes, Bill Clinton, and of course, Donald Trump. "The Hardest Job in the World" is a bit too wordy and repetitious; it could have been trimmed with no loss of coherence. For the most part, however, John Dickerson entertains, amuses, and enlightens us with anecdotes from the campaigns and administrations of Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan. Dickerson suggests that the American presidency has become too unwieldy for one person to handle. Nevertheless, he believes that the citizens of the United States can do their part by championing thoughtful, honorable, and compassionate candidates who will do their utmost to unite us for a common purpose.
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Really interesting book. A treasure chest of anecdotes and explanations of history that are a pleasure to read. A thoughtful look at what we expect of presidents and what presidents expect of the office. ( )

3.5 stars.

Dickerson does a good job of breaking down the various duties of the presidency -- at least, in the first section of the book, he does. A lot of this book gets sidetracked from that focus to detail all the way American politics "used to work." He regales us with stories about Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, about times when politicians could get meals together and hammer things out. In this way, it's very reminiscent of Tim Alberta's book, American Carnage, which covers the strife within the Republican Party from 2008 to 2016.

There are good points to be made while traipsing down memory lane. Dickerson is correct that modern US presidents are too quick to rely on executive orders, that political compromise is anathema to modern politicians, and that this is all leading us down a darker road that only promises more gridlock and political frustration. But he doesn't offer any solutions, either.

The most frustrating thing about this book is it identifies a problem, but instead of even alluding to a solution, Dickerson instead points back to presidencies of yesteryear, remarking "look how nice it was when Reagan was president and Congress got along" (he focuses on Reagan a lot here. And that's all well and good -- my dad recalls similar stories whenever politics comes up at the kitchen table. The problem is that the Republican party of 1980 is not the Republican party of today. Reagan himself couldn't get elected in this climate. So, to point at past presidencies and say "wasn't this great, wasn't this nice" does nothing to help our current situation.

The other frustration I have with the book is that it's less focused on how "hard" the American presidency is (which it is) and more an avenue for Dickerson to explore the presidencies he likes. Whether he's talking about FDR, Reagan, Lincoln, Washington, or JFK, he never really addresses how "hard" the job is -- he discusses the political climate at the time, the way the president or Congress addressed it, and moves on.

As I mentioned before, Dickerson does, on occasion, bring up good points, but they are left awash in long chapters about political history that don't connect to his central thesis. ( )

Written with his typical wit and precision, this book is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand why the presidency just pretty much sucks. ( )

I think it's so hard to review this book NOW, in mid-January 2021, after all that's happened over the past few weeks. It's like reading a book about terrorism written in May 2001. You know it's important but it misses a lot.

The best part of this book was the first part, which I found helpful in putting the presidency into historical context. What does the president do, what can the president do, what should the president do? How has this changed over time? Understanding how more modern presidents (and not just 45) have either reinterpreted the job, or had it reinterpreted for them or in spite of them, was eye-opening.

The last part of this book, about the world we live in now, is just completely irrelevant after the current lame duck president decided not to concede the election, lie to his constituents that the election was stolen (or that he won in a "landslide" when he lost both the popular and electoral votes), attempt to get electors to illegally have the election results changed, and encouraged his loyalists to storm the capitol, which they did, in an attempted insurrection. And the inauguration of president-elect Joe Biden hasn't even happened yet! So much is changing, and so quickly, that this book has become almost meaningless in its interpretation of the presidency. I would welcome reading a revised edition, or even a new preface or something, after things have gotten back to whatever normal will be in a few months.

This is not even to mention the impacts of a worldwide pandemic on the presidency. The economic impact, the lives that were lost...

In other words, so much has happened since this book was published, that while the first parts of it may be meaningful, the book has lost a lot of its relevancy. ( )