The Presidency: The White House as Theater

Before he went to Geneva last year to meet with the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan broadcast a brief message on television and radio to the people of the world. In the Voice of America studio during the preparations, a slight, bearded figure hovered at the elbow of the President.

Edmund Morris, Pulitzer-prizewinning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt, had never been so close to the actual events of power. Every sound, every gesture, every word was caught and cataloged in his quick mind. As the final seconds before broadcast time ticked off, Morris saw a sudden movement beneath the President's table....

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