The Women in White and Our First Woman President

You couldn't help but stare at the women in white last night during the State of the Union. It has been a hundred years since women got the vote and the women of the senate were showing their solidarity with those women who marched a century before. But there is another one hundred year anniversary and that is the Presidency of Edith Wilson. She took over the White House when Woodrow Wilson had a massive stroke and was hidden away in a bedroom. She really was our First Woman President even though she was not elected.

But the symbolism of all those women in the House of Representatives shows how far women have come. Edith Wilson only had three years of school and had buried a baby and a husband when she met Woodrow Wilson. She was forty four to his fifty nine and driving an electric car with the first drivers license issued in the District of Columbia. She had only been married to the President four years when he had a stroke after returning from a whistle stop tour to pass the League of Nations. The decision not to tell the public and the reluctance of the Vice President made Edith the defacto President.

She ruled for only two years and in a touch of irony the suffragettes had been chaining themselves to the White House gates for years to convince Wilson to support the vote for women. Little did they know a woman would run the White House. So the women in white are really celebrating two anniversaries, the vote for women and a secret presidency where a Woman ran the United States.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

You Know When Men Are Lying

I knew guys like Kavanaugh when I was growing up in Baltimore Maryland. I went to a prep school for a few years and right down to the accent I recognized the type. You win at any cost. I busted my tail. I heard that many times out of the Supreme Court nominee. I had heard that growing up from many guys who were headed to Ivy League Schools. Right down to the accent, the bluster, the aggressive in your face style. It is an East Coast persona you never forget. And you learn how to lie early on and you do it with a simply tactic, attack.
 
Its between the self aggrandizing tirades about sports, grades, schools, the pushing back against the Senators, there was the moments between moments which all men recognize. It is a hopeful desperate expression that shows you are just barely hanging on. After watching for eight hours yesterday I have no doubt that Kavanaugh wasn't telling the truth. The yearbook, the drinking, the sex.  It was obvious, but it was also obvious the fix was in. The good old boys club would stick together.

That East Coast swagger had gotten the supreme court nominee pretty far. He was going to use it bull his way through the Democratic Senators. He was going to cower, cajole, lie. But guys know. Like I said I have seen the type before. Right down to the yearbook and the drinking games. Win at any cost. Lie at any cost. All the way to the Supreme Court.

William Hazelgrove

The Naked Charlie Rose Show

Like most people who watched Charlie Rose I was always a little baffled. The set was austere with Charlie and his guest sitting in darkness. The no frills we are serious demeanor of Charlie was always broken up by his sycophantic laughter that was always a joke only he was in on. And then it was just this sort of low energy thing that ended with Charlie looking at the camera like he had nothing more than getting to the heart of the matter at his core. Now we know what was really at his core, a naked man.

I mean Harvey masturbating. Spacey grabbing young boys. Franken groping, tonguing, taking photos of himself grabbing a woman while she slept is all bad but these guys  were out there and it wasn't really that surprising. But Rose came from the other side of serious journalism where you would think his big excitement was reading the NY Times Editorial page and gabbing with other journalists at some swanky upper East Side restaurant. Not so.

Charlie liked to get out of his shower and walk up on twenty somethings without a stitch of clothes. He did the open robe thing all hot and slimy from the shower. He liked to grab young assistants in his car while driving through Manhattan. He liked to get people to sleep over and then go swimming nude and walk up on them while they worked on their laptops. Gone was the super serious droopy eyed Charlie drilling down to some existential point in his blacked out studio. In his place was the naked guy who would can the assistants who talked about being grabbed or exposed to his wet old body.

So what can we say about any of this? Charlies show is gone. No more fits of weird laughter in the slowed down time of another era. His lifestyle was pretty fabulous. Jetting off in private jets to interview people all over the world with lots of young assistants in tow. To much is given much is expected. Too bad he cant' interview himself. That would have been a good topic.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Madam President Ruled in 1919

Whenever I do signings for any book I always sell a lot of Madam President The Secret  Presidency of Edith Wilson. I start by telling people we already had a woman president. Usually people laugh but then I tell them to go to .gov and read about first ladies because there in Edith's bio is the statement that she ran the executive for two years. She did. It was a great cover up of a sitting Presidents inability to govern and his wife taking over and running the United States for two years.

Hard to believe really. The next question is how come I don't know this. A lot of history is papered over with mythology. The facts get lost under agendas and historical bias. Historians are loathe to say that Edith Wilson was President. It does not fit in the Wilson historical context. It is also too fantastic to believe. How could this be pulled off? No radio for one thing. Newspapers were the primary source of news and people were not used to seeing the President.

A press that was complicit in the cover up. Or at least a press that didn't question. Yet there were papers that did speculate that Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and his wife was running the country. But it didn't get much traction. Then Edith herself made sure her tracks were covered in a 1939 memoir where she said she never made any decisions but was just a steward. None of this is true. The fact is Edith Wilson was the President in 1919 albeit unelected and ran the country until 1921. Believe it or not.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The 25th Amendment Would Not Have Removed Woodrow Wilson When Edith Took Over

A lot of talk of using the 25th amendment against Trump but the truth is that will be difficult.  It wouldn't have worked against Woodrow Wilson either. It wasn't passed until after Kennedy was assassinated but Woodrow Wilson is the closest we have to a Trump situation. Wilson had a stroke, was paralyzed and could barely put five sentences together. His wife, doctor, and Chief of Staff came up with a plan to hide him away and let Edith Wilson run the government. They pulled it off all the way to the end of his term and basically it was the best kept secret until recently.

But there was a movement to have Wilson step down and it is reminiscent of what might happen if the cabinet tries to remove Trump. The 25th amendment says basically the cabinet along with the vice president can vote to have the president removed if the president is incapacitated or unable to fulfill the duties of the presidency. When Wilson collapsed Secretary of State Lansing made a move to have him removed. He called the cabinet together and then demanded Secretary Tumulty and Dr. Grayson come and assert the President was incapacitated.

Secretary Tumulty said  no. He said "not while the President is flat on his back." And then Lansing asked Grayson if he would certify that the President was too sick to carry on the duties of President. Grayson shook his head and said absolutely not. And then Tumulty issued a warning that he would let the President know who was trying to remove him. The cabinet meeting ended with the full cabinet wishing the President a speedy recovery.  Lansing would later be fired and in no small part because Edith and the President never forgave him for his treachery.

It is not so simple to remove a sitting President....even when they are paralyzed and bedridden and their wife is running the country.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith Wilson and the Twenty Fifth Amendment

The Twenty Fifth Amendment is in the news now. Many say Donald Trump cannot fulfill his duties as President because he might be crazy. See Mika and Joe. The Twenty Fifth Amendment passed in 1967 was created  in part because of what happened with the Woodrow Wilson Presidency and Edith Wilson's assumption of presidential power. Up to that point Clause 6 of Article 11 of the Constitution was vague. It said basically if the President can't fulfill his duties someone should take over. It did not even specify the Vice President.

When Woodrow Wilson had his stroke and Edith and Cary Grayson covered up his condition they were not really violating the Constitution. Few could say who would declare Wilson unfit and when Secretary Lansing asked Dr. Grayson if he he might do it Grayson refused and dared anyone to come forth and push the issue. No one did. So Edith ran the White House and essentially became our First Woman President.

But now  the 25th Amendment makes it clear. If the Vice President and his cabinet decide the President is unfit then the VP becomes President unless the President protests and then it goes to Congress for a vote. Edith Wilson would have been powerless if Vice President Marshall had taken the  inititative and had the cabinet vote on Wilson's ability to rule. Marshall would have become President and the Edith Wilson Presidency would have not happened.

So now we have Trump. Would Pence undertake such a vote? Not a chance. But at the least people know there is a vehicle now for Presidential succession should Trump become insane.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

What Woodrow Wilson's Stroke Can Tell Us About the Twenty Fifth Amendment

The New York Times has a piece on the 25th amendment and the possibility of removing

Donald Trump. The twenty fifth amendment was designed to stop what happened with Woodrow Wilson. He had a stroke and his wife, doctor, and Chief of Staff hid it from the world for two years. The twenty fifth amendment basically says that if the cabinet decides the president cannot do his job then they can vote to remove the President. This would have to be approved by the Senate but the process would start with the Presidents own cabinet. Here is where it gets interesting and might give us insight on Donald Trumps situation.

Secretary of State Lansing knew what was going on and demanded that President Wilson step down and asked Dr. Grayson and Secretary Tumulty to address the cabinet on his condition. Lansing produced the constitution and read aloud the amendment on constitutional succession. Tumulty snapped and said he didn't need the constitution read to him and that he was fully aware of the right of the Vice President to assume power. "But I will not be part of an effort to remove the President when he is flat on his back." Lansing then turned to Grayson and asked to know the Presidents condition. Dr. Grayson said the President was recovering but could fulfill his duties and then issued a warning. He said the President would be very interested to know who is plotting his removal. The cabinet members then sent on their good wishes and Lansing was left high and dry. 

Vice President Marshall never took over for Wilson because he didn't want to be President. He too said that in effect he didn't want to be accused of stealing the Presidency from Wilson. Edith Wilson ruled until Wilson's term ended. There is a lot of talk of the twenty fifth amendment now but removing a President can be tricky especially if the Vice President does not want the job and the cabinet is not unanimous. Brutus does not want to be caught in the open and so it is really who is willing to stick their neck out first. 

History does repeat itself. President Wilson fired Lansing within a year of  the meeting.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Why Do So Few People Know About Our First Woman President?

That's easy. History is written by the victors. And the victors were men. They wrote the history in 1921 the year the Edith Wilson Presidency ended. And for the next fifty years they held the Woodrow Wilson legacy together. Edith Wilson wrote a memoir in 1939 that claimed she was only a "steward" but never President. She too was committed to Woodrow Wilson's legacy to the point her relatives were never allowed to ask her about the President. That door was shut.

And so our First Woman President skirted the pages of history. It was always that lurking factoid. Something about a President who had a massive stroke and his wife stepped then stepped in. But it never got traction and the books that came out danced around the issue. A later history of Edith and Woodrow went so far as to claim Edith Wilson was power mad and grabbed power but never recognized her for running the White House from 1919 to 1921.

The government finally recognized what she did on a website that summarizes the first ladies. On .gov there is a reference to Edith that simply says she ran the Executive Branch for two years. It isn't much, but it is a beginning.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

What Happened to the Kindle?

You remember that funny thing that lit up and then went dead really fast. Or how about that thing you tried to read in the sun and it was like a black piece of slate. Or that thing where you never knew what page you were on and couldn't tell when you would finish the book or if the pages were marked and you couldn't spill jelly or coffee on it or throw it in your backpack or get it wet or find that one book you know you downloaded but now it is just gone. You know the thing that was supposed to be the IPOD of books. What happened to it?

I know I know. There are a lot of people out there who are happy kindle users but it is weird when the hardcover of my book  outpaces the kindle by four to one. People seem willing to plunk down 29.00 for a hardcover instead of getting an electronic version of less than half the price. The bigger question is why didn't it blow away all those pulpy books especially hardcovers.
Could it be readers are different than people who listen to music and while spotify tore the music biz to pieces the kindle fizzled like a bottle rocket.

The rub on this is the kindle flat lined somewhere and the novelty wore off and people went back to buying books. I am a perfect example. My kindle is jammed with books. And for a while that was my thing. No more books. Just electronic. But I missed marking up my books, I missed bending the pages, knowing how far i had to go...I missed READING a book. It is different. When I asked my comp class  in college who had a kindle? Not one hand went up.

So maybe it will come back. But until then bring on the coffee and jelly and bend back those pages and throw that bad boy by the tub. And the great thing is you don't have to plug it  in. My own kindle sits on my dresser...covered in dust.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Those Tough as Nails Feminists

They were tough. When I was growing up in Baltimore the feminist movement was in full flower. My mother was on board as were many East Coast Kennedyesque women who were willing to march, lay down in the street and do whatever it took to advance women's right. I hung out with a kid named Matt. He was cool. His parents were real hippies. His brother was a hippy. His father had long hair and his mother...well she drove an VW Micro bus, wore her hair down to her waist, wore high boots, long coats, and did not take anything from anyone. 

She was the activist mom of  the early seventies and had signs in her garage from demonstrations. His mother scared the hell out of me. One time I didn't eat the crusts of my tuna fish sandwich. She turned her dark eyes on me with her peace sign hanging down. Do you know how many kids are starving in China Billy? I did not. Well there are many and they would kill for those crusts. From then on I ate the crusts. 

But I think about my mother and Matt's mom and how they took nothing from anyone. And I think about the women's movement today. They will have to get tough because power is not given up easily and they are facing probably the most hostile administration in history to women's rights. It will be a tough fight...but you know what, I still eat my crusts. 

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The Secret Presidency of 1919 Could Happen Again

Whenever there is a vacuum of power someone moves in. When Woodrow Wilson fell ill in 1919 Edith Wilson took over and the ran the government for two years. No one knew and most people still don't. I am amazed at how many people know nothing about the Edith Wilson presidency. But lets take our current president. Donald Trump does not read. At all. He does not like complicated facts or data. His attention span is 140 characters. He exists in bytes and television  and delegates off everything except the bold command. That means there is a HUGE power vacuum because after the initial awe inspiring order there are the details. Like the immigration order Bannon worked up. It is just the beginning.

The point is the 25th amendment that calls for the vice president to take over if the president cannot fulfill his duties will never get invoked. Trump will continue to skate on the ice leaving Bannon and others down below to enact policy. It is in the details after all as we can see from this weekends fiasco. The Secret Presidency does not necessarily have to involve someone becoming enfeebled or ill. Someone could have no real interest in the job itself.

And that is Donald. After his game of RISK he grows bored. Make the bold statement. YOU'RE FIRED. A WALL. BAN THE MUSLIMS. Then go play golf or goof around in Trump Towers. Power lies with those who grab it. A short attention span and an addiction to drama is a perfect setup for a man who wants to smash the Means of Power.

 Don't you think so...comrade?   

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

                                                                                                                                                                                

The New Art of Selling Books

Selling books keeps morphing. Before it was the bookstore and then it became the Internet. Authors were the man sitting behind the desk who magically sold books at signings. This was the golden age. The public wanted the book and the author was there to give it to them. We have seen  lots of photos of the dapper author sitting behind a table with one arm up and a book under his pen. Then the Internet came along and knocked that author right on his duff. You now sold books on the net and hours logged on social media hopefully converted to book sales.

Then came the ebook. Game over  or so everyone thought. Surely the Ipod was a cautionary tale and books would soon be devalued as a quaint artifact of the printing press era. Certainly Kindles would rule the day. But then a strange thing happened...readers rebelled. They quit plugging in their Kindles and what do you know a song is different from a book. Something about an intellectual exercise and readers prefer something tangible versus bits and bytes. The ebooks revolution fizzled down into the black screen of an ereader on a bright sunny day.

So people went back to buying books. But there is a different way to sell now. The author cannot sit behind his table any longer. He must get out there and "hand sell" his book. This was the way books were originally sold before conglomeration and mass culture. The bookseller would introduce the customer to a new book and the customer would buy. What a concept. So we are now in a new era. Authors... get out from behind your tables.


Madam, President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

How One Woman Forced the United States to Give Women THE VOTE

We don’t’ hear about Alice Paul. When we think of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States we think of Susan B. Anthony or Carrie Catt. When I asked for books on Alice Paul I found only one and it was a little know history book long forgotten. She predated Martin Luther King by fifty years, but she was the first to use nonviolence in America as a means to augment social change.

   Alice Paul, because of her extreme tactics of confrontation  and the truths she revealed about our police, our penal system, and President Woodrow Wilson, was treated as a non-person after the nineteenth amendment passed giving women the right to vote in the United States. But the truth is Alice Paul forced President Woodrow Wilson and the United States government to pass the nineteenth amendment  giving women the right to vote through demonstrations, hunger strikes, imprisonment, burnings, threats, and an unrelenting  campaign that could only be termed as  modern terrorism against a recalcitrant government.

   Most people associate the suffragette movement with pictures of Victorian women marching in parades with banners across their shoulders. The reality is the government of the United States had no intention of giving women the right to vote when Woodrow Wilson was elected in 1912. The only way to make a world of men recognize the injustice of not giving women an equal say in a democracy was to put the issue of women’s suffrage front and center.

    It was through the radical tactics of one woman, Alice Paul, that President Wilson and the government had to finally capitulate and pass the nineteenth amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote. But this came at a very high price and Alice Paul would be imprisoned, beaten, harassed, threatened, committed to an insane asylum, and force fed in a brutal manner after hunger strikes that left her unable to get out of her bed.

 She would lay siege to the White House for four years with daily demonstrations outside the gates, chaining’s, burning of Wilson in effigy, arrests, beatings, and finally the unrelenting imprisonment and hunger strike that forced Wilson to pardon her and then her refusal to leave prison where the dreaded force feedings began again. 

She understood that change only came through creating dis-ease in the powers that be. Something the  Womens March will attempt to do on Saturday. 

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

The Historical Significance of the Womens March

Alice Paul endured an  insane asylum and being force fed after being imprisoned. She headed up the National Organization of Women and believed the only way women would get the vote was through direct confrontation with the  men who held power. The President Woodrow Wilson and his young new wife Edith motored through the White House gates while suffragettes chained themselves to the gates and laid down in front of the presidential limousine. Wilson believed in state control of the vote and didn't think the Federal government should get involved.

Alice Paul would not be ignored. She managed to get arrested along with other women and ended up in prison. The President offered a pardon and they refused. A hunger strike began with Alice leading the way. Wilson began to lose the public relations battle when Paul became very ill and wealthy women began to join the picket line. Force feeding commenced but still Paul would not give up. The commitment to an insane asylum only hurt the presidents case.

Paul was released and Wilson eventually ended up asking congress to pass legislation giving the vote to women. It failed but the ball had started rolling and in 1921 women got the vote. And now women are marching to protest another president. This one wants to set women's rights back fifty years. The use of protest and creating dis-ease was Alice Pauls favorite tactic. She could relate to the women gearing up for the 21st.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Selling Books at Barnes and Noble

The first thing you do is find your table. It is by the door which is a good thing. You will be the first person someone sees when they walk in and walk out. Your books are piled up and displayed. Your sign is in place. The Community Relations Coordinator asks if you need anything. No you say. Water. No. Ok. She walks away and you pull out your bookmarks. These are your ammo. They have the name of your book and and the name of your forthcoming book. They are the giveaway. There is a chair behind the table. You won't use it.

You have seen those authors before. They are sitting in stores behind a table with their books piled high. People walk by the oprhan who stares into space. Some stop to ask the author if he or she knows where the bathroom is. Or do they know where they can find the next Harry Potter book. The forlorn author tells them in fact they are an author. People are not quite sure what to make of the them and they go back to being invisible.

In the year 2017 no author can afford to sit back unless you are a runaway bestseller and many are not. So that chair remains empty while you talk to every person who walks in and introduce yourself and your book. People actually like to talk to authors. They have chose a funky career path and that in itself is interesting. Four hours later you leave with your voice hoarse and your brain spent. You have sold seventeen books and handed  out fifty bookmarks. Not bad.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Did We Have A Woman President in 1919? Woodrow Wilson House Presentation American History TV

Presentation on Madam President the Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson American History TV CSPAN
Presentation on The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith Wilsons Movie Theatre at the White House

Edith decided that movies might help the President. Since the ravages of the stroke Wilson rarely left his bed and Edith needed to give him something to do. Besides the President had liked silent movies before and this seemed a logical way to entertain him and give some routine to the day. So the rug was pulled back in the Red Room of the White House and a projectionist was brought in. Wilson liked Westerns but he didn't want the accompaniment of a piano which was standard in most theatres. For the Edith  Wilson movie house the clicking of the projector would be the only sound.

So they did it. Wilson's Coney Island wheel chair was wheeled down to the Red Room and the curtains pulled. A sheet from the Lincoln bed was pinned to the wall. The chandeliers sparkled with the movie light as silent riders crossed the screen for the old man wrapped in blankets with his head cocked to one side like an expectant bird. Edith sat with him as they watched the movies in the morning and sometimes she would end up talking with her secretary or one of Wilson's assistants. Wilson didn't like films that were too intense so they had to show "mellow Westerns. During one of these conversations the President fell out of his chair in the darkness.

The projectionists was horrified and was convinced he just saw Woodrow Wilson expire. The question was whether to continue the film or let Edith Wilson know her husband had just died. He decided the film must continue. Edith eventually aw Woodrow on the floor and picked him up with assistance and put his back in his wheelchair. The film played on to the man in the darkness who watched with his head leaning left while the rest of the world galloped away.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Edith and Woodrows Excellent Adventure

They were going on the presidential yacht. They did that. Just pick and go on a drive or take the ship out for a cruise. In this way they were very much like a modern couple. Little junkets of reciting  poetry around fires or going horseback riding together. But on this day they headed out and went for a cruise and came upon a small island. The President and Edith took a small launch to the island and were surprised to find it deserted. The small cottages were all buttoned up tight with the shutters drawn. So they left.

But at the dock Wilson turned and looked back. Lets go  back and see what's going on he said turning around. He and Edith returned and they saw people outside the cottages. When they saw the president and Edith they scurried back inside except for one man. He stared at Woodrow Wilson. Wouldn't you be the president? I have that honor Wilson returned. The man breathed in relief. We thought you was the Germans come to invade.

The Germans had been sinking American ships as World War I raged overseas. In  1919 there was no radio and newspapers were sporadic for many islanders. Rumors of invasion swept over the coutnry routinely. Woodrow and Edith then talked to the man and the other islanders who came out to greet them. After a lunch they returned to the launch and went back to the ship. Within a year the United States would be at war with Germany and in the hell of World War I.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
William Hazelgrove

The WGN Rick Kogan Show On a Snowy Night in Chicago

It takes forever to get there but you make it and you are hungry. You duck into Billy Goats and stare at the old journalists on the walls while you eat your two cheeseburgers chips no fries. There is John Belushi on the wall. Hes gone too. But you are there to go on at ten with one of the few real  journalists still left. Rick Kogans show is unique. He reads the books and wants to talk about them. As you emerge from the underground on the slushy sidewalks of Michigan Avenue you can feel Studs Terkel and Nelson Algren maybe Al Capone. They are all there on this cold wintry night.

But you are there to do the show and so you wait across the street  in a Starbucks and kill time. The Tribune Tower is massive and you can see the WGN studio through the window. You used to live not far from the studio in a high rise but that was a long time ago before kids and the suburbs. But the books always pull you back into the city You know you will be up back here one day with all those dead Chicago authors.

So you walk up and down Michigan Avenue and the snow is coming down harder. Not many people out now. It is Sunday night after all. A ten o'clock slot of live radio for thirty minutes is coveted. Especially with a man who can talk books. You finish a cigarette and look at the clock. Its cold. It's time to go into that Chicago night again and fill the air waves. Last of the Mohicans.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

How Did the Government Cover Up the Edith Wilson Presidency in 1919?

If you think government cover ups are new just look at the Edith Wilson Presidency. President Woodrow Wilson was struck down by a stroke that left him paralyzed and unable to govern. What should have happened was theVice President takes over. But Edith Wilson along with Secretary Tumulty and Dr. Grayson the Presidents physician conspired to tell no one of the presidents condition and have Mrs. Wilson take over as president. So the conspiracy started with three people and then involved Wilson himself who knew enough that he should of given up the presidency.

Edith began governing by using three tactics. One she would return items and basically ignore the business of the White House. Or she would scrawl on documents instructions in her child like hand and either instruct the person to wait or to take action. Or she would delegate problems off to the heads of departments. On legislation she either let it go through or signed it herself. All the while Dr. Grayson, Edith, and Secretary Tumulty kept the front up that the President was just suffering from nervous exhaustion.

Meanwhile newspapers speculated the President had gone mad, had syphilis, or had died. Some guessed he had a stroke but this did  not change the conspirators who kept Wilson out of view for five months and then decided to drive him around in the presidential limousine, propped up with his hat on, his right side that was not paralyzed facing the world. Meanwhile Edith continued to appoint cabinet ministers, fire them, scrawling orders of state and signing bills. Even when it was all over the cover up held for seventy years with Edith adding to it in her  memoir which she wrote to specifically to deny she had any role at all.

But now we know. The greatest government cover up occurred in 1919 and it involved our First Woman President. If Hillary had made it she would have been the second Woman President. But for now...Edith Wilson alone holds that title.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson