On The Book Tour of Madam President in Washington DC

The first thing you are is tired. You have just given everything at a radio interview and there is nothing in the tank but you have more interviews and CSPAN in the afternoon and you are in front of people from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation who might not be crazy about calling Edith Wilson the First Woman President. And it is the first day your book is out.

That alone is a conflict of emotions. Yes the book is a lot like a baby with all that anticipation. But there it is and there is not a lot you can do at a point. Forget that you don't know where you are and everyone knows it you have to focus. So you duck into a Starbucks for cerebral juice and hope you wont be so brain fogged in the next interview. Sleeping in a hotel room puts you behind the eight ball. Who sleeps well in a room that a thousand other people have slept?

But this is it. You either do it or you dont'. When people read your book back to you on the air you wonder who wrote it. They sound so focused, something you are not. No matter. Coffee. Uber. And then a flight back home the next day. Onward.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Madam Presidents Close Election in 1916

Edith Wilson had a close election of her own in 1916. And it was about as nasty as this one. Woodrow Wilson was running for re-election and Edith had only been married to the President for one year. She hoped and believed he would lose and they could go live their new life together. Wilson was running against Charles Evans Hughes and many thought he would lose. The country had war fever yet Wilson did not declare war against Germany. Teddy Roosevelt accused the president of everything but treason and then he accused him of that as well.

Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick became Wilson Speaks softly and carries a dishrag. But more than that the people seemed ready for a change and Hughes played on war fever and many saw Wilson and his new wife Edith as finished. The day of the election the New York Times called it for Hughes before voting was even finished. Wilson acknowledged defeat and said he would telegram Hughes in the morning. He went to bed. Edith followed him up and found him awake.

"Well my dear, it seems you will get your wish and we can do all those things you have been wanting to do." He then went to sleep. The returns from the West had not come in and especially California with its high number of delegates. When Wilson woke he found the election undecided. All the next day the counting continued but was slowed by a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Ballots were counted by hand and horse drawn wagons carried the ballots thorough the snow. Finally the next day all the votes were counted and Wilson won by a whisper.  Madam President braced herself for four more years. Little did she know her own presidency would begin in a few years.


Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson