Madam President by Nicolle Wallace Read Free Book Online

but once her affair with the president’s husband was made public, her credibility as a journalist was shattered. Dale was astounded by how quickly she had adapted to life inside the presidential bubble. It was as though she’d never stood on the other side of the reporter-versus-government-official divide. After a tumultuous year as the vice president’s counselor, during which Dale and Charlotte had occasion to collaborate on a variety of sensitive topics, Charlotte tapped her to serve as the White House press secretary.
    It had further cemented the end of that chapter in Dale’s life when the president and Peter had publicly reconciled. To survive the spectacle of the first couple’s renewed affection for each other, Dale threw herself into her new job. Serving as the White House press secretary had renewed her in surprising ways, and Warren’s attention had also eased the pain of her very public breakup with one of the most well-known married men in the world.
    Now it felt to Dale as though her life had changed dramatically in a very short period of time. She’d gone from a network correspondent who covered the White House and was engaged in a clandestine love affair with the president’s estranged husband to the White House press secretary in the span of a few short years. In Washington, time moved in dog years. Seven years of chaos and drama could be crammed into one. As far as Washington’s ruling class was concerned, Dale’s affair with Peter was ancient history. If Charlotte could forgive her and promote her to press secretary, then surely they could welcome her to their cocktail parties and Georgetown dinners.
    “Do you want a glass of wine?” Warren asked.
    “Sure. I’m going to change. Bring it into the bedroom when you come in.”
    Dale sat on the edge of the bed and scrolled through her e-mail messages. Everything was on track for the next day. She sent a message to her deputy, who would be at the White House when the senior staff started arriving with their embedded CBS crews in the early-morning hours. Dale would be driving in with a crew herself.
    She still couldn’t believe that Charlotte had agreed to participate in the “Day in the Life” and that she’d done so with minimal prodding. The network had assigned camera crews to all of the senior staff and the president and vice president. The idea was for the crews to follow each of them through an “ordinary” day in the West Wing. Crews would also be stationed in the president’s private kitchen, in the White House Mess where the senior staff ate most of their meals, and at all of the executive assistants’ desks to get a sense of the volume of incoming calls, visitors, and problems that the White House staff managed on a daily basis. Dale had even persuaded the Secret Service to participate in the filming. A film crew would be stationed at the Northwest Gate, where the majority of visitors to the White House entered. An additional crew would be embedded at its command post.
    The final production would air on 60 Minutes on two consecutive Sundays and would be teased each morning on the network’s morning show and each night on the evening news, guaranteeingmaximum exposure. It was part of a broader publicity plan designed to pull back the curtain on the president’s second term. It was also designed to showcase the chemistry between the president and vice president, Maureen McCoughlin. Maureen was the former Democratic speaker of the House, and she deserved much of the credit for helping Charlotte regain her political footing so quickly after her predecessor crashed and burned.
    Dale believed that part of the reason Charlotte had backed her for the top press job was for her understanding of the need for unprecedented access and transparency in the wake of Tara’s brief stint as vice president. Dale had also developed a keen sense of the president’s voice on matters large and small. And the president had noticed. She deferred to