An intimate compulsively readable account of the dynamics that have shaped-and sometimes
destroyed-relations at the top of the American political hierarchy.... [and] a valuable
addition to the literature of the modern presidency. - Wall Street Journal From the author of
the New York Times bestsellers First Women and The Residence an intimate news-making look at
the men who are next in line to the most powerful office in the world-the vice presidents of
the modern era-from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden to Mike Pence. Vice presidents occupy a unique
and important position living partway in the spotlight and part in the wings. Of the
forty-eight vice presidents who have served the United States fourteen have become president
eight of these have risen to the Oval Office because of a president's death or assassination
and one became president after his boss's resignation. John Nance Garner FDR's first vice
president famously said the vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm piss (later cleaned
up to warm spit). But things have changed dramatically in recent years. In interviews with more
than two hundred people including former vice presidents their family members and insiders
and confidants of every president since Jimmy Carter Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the
curtain and reveals the sometimes cold sometimes close and always complicated relationship
between our modern presidents and their vice presidents. Brower took us inside the lives of the
White House staff and gave us an intimate look at the modern First Ladies now in her
signature style she introduces us to the second most powerful men in the world exploring the
lives and roles of thirteen modern vice presidents-eight Republicans and five Democrats. And
she shares surprising revelations about the relationship between former Vice President Joe
Biden and former President Barack Obama and how Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald
Trump interact behind closed doors. From rivals to coworkers there is a very tangible sense of
admiration mixed with jealousy and resentment in nearly all these relationships between the
number two and his boss even the best ones Brower reveals. Vice presidents owe their position
to the president a connection that affects not only how they are perceived but also their
possible future as a presidential candidate-which is tied for better or worse to the
president they serve. George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan had a famously prickly relationship
during the 1980 primary yet Bush would not have been elected president in 1988 without
Reagan's high approval rating. Al Gore's 2000 loss meanwhile could be attributed to the
Monica Lewinsky sex scandal and Bill Clinton's impeachment. Current Vice President Mike Pence
is walking a high-stakes political tightrope as he tries to reassure anxious Republicans while
staying on his boss's good side. This rich dynamic between the president and the vice president
has never been fully explored or understood. Compelling and deeply reported grounded in
history and politics and full of previously untold and incredibly personal stories First In
Line pierces the veil of secrecy enveloping this historic political office to offer us a candid
portrait of what it's truly like to be a heartbeat away.
