Philip D. Lamb

For the Good of the Country Philip D. Lamb

THE WASHINGTON POST Danielle Stanton the First Lady has died President Stanton Devastated Washington, The White House: Danielle Stanton beloved wife of President Andrew Holmes Stanton has died. The nation and the world are in mour- ning. Her death comes on the heels of the death of Mathew Thorn, President Stanton?s Vice-President and lifelong friend. Chief of Staff Lankford made the announcement last night. President Stanton, the oldest man ever to serve as president remains secluded. Vice-President Roosevelt offered his heart-felt sympathy. For the Good of the Country is a novel of political intrigue ? a political thriller with a twenty-one day play-clock. President Stanton?s grief is crippling. He sleeps only with drugs. They don?t touch his depression. Maybe time heals all wounds but how much time can the nation give its beloved President? Vice-President Roosevelt is under increasing pressure to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment and seize the Presidency. The battle pits an old, perhaps fatally wounded, President against his young Vice-President. One clings to the power the other hopes to grasp. The battle is fought by surrogates. Rogue elements are in control; murder is just another tool. This novel is fiction but it is not fantasy. The Twenty-Fifth Amendment may prove the old adage that ?the road to hell is paved with good intention.? At best the Amendment is a solution to presidential incapacitation; at worst it is a prescription for a coup d?état