Date: 27 October 2024
Location: Linda B.
Fifteen Bookers met at Linda B’s to discuss The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos, a news commentator who most of us remembered as an advisor to President Clinton.
This is a historical account of the Situation Room (actually a complex of rooms) initially set up in the White House during the Kennedy administration as a crisis management center for the President. Eight or nine of us completed the book, and I think all of us enjoyed the book very much. A couple of Bookers did not like and did not finish the book, primarily because – under the current political environment – reading a political book right now was just too unpleasant.
Most of us found the book very interesting. Part of the reason may be that we are all of an age that we remember the different Presidents involved and recall many of the key events. And the book lays out a fascinating timeline of the major crises over the last 60+ years and how the different Presidents and his advisors responded.
One aspect of the book that we all enjoyed was the personal information of the people involved – such as Richard Nixon’s drinking, George Bush’s sincerity, Jimmy Carter’s concern for the hostages, Barack Obama’s decision making, etc – and numerous small details such as why the iconic photo of Obama and his staff observing the Bin Laden raid took place in a small crowded conference room not the actual Situation Room itself.
After our discussions, we all enjoyed a fine meal highlighted by Linda’s delicious chicken pot pie.
—Bob