Preparing to be president

"Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy reportedly said, "If I am elected, I don't want to wake up on the morning of November 9 and have to ask myself, 'What in the world do I do now?'" So before his campaigning ended, he called on Richard E. Neustadt, author of the influential bestseller, Presidential Power, to write a series of memos to plan for the transition into the Presidency."

"This volume presents Neustadt's previously unpublished memos to Kennedy along with later memos he wrote for Ronald Reagan, Michael Dukakis, and Bill Clinton and advice for the next President of the United States. In this volume, the man Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., calls "our most brilliant commentator on the Presidency" reveals for the first time how he came to advise the various Presidents-elect and candidates. In addition, editor Charles O. Jones offers a critical analysis of the memos and an insightful bibliographic essay on the relationship between the Neustadt memos and the transition memos that others have written."--Jacket.