I had no plans to read it but thanks for taking one for the team and confirming my preconceptions. You deserve one of these ->
Bill Clinton's cyber-attack novel: The airport haxploit-blockbuster you knew it would be
The Register has read the The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson so you don't have to. Don't say we never do anything for you... Bill Clinton’s foray into co-authoring a novel is an awkward hybrid of cyber thriller and reflections on the loneliness and responsibility of high political office. The …
COMMENTS
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Wednesday 4th July 2018 13:38 GMT Voland's right hand
confirming my preconceptions.
They definitely confirmed mine:
The fictional president, a former governor of a southern US state (remind you of anyone?) and widower,
OK, we finally have a confirmation of Bill's subliminal wishes about his other half. Congratulations bill. Husbands Anonymous salutes you.
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Thursday 5th July 2018 10:10 GMT CrazyOldCatMan
Re: The President is missing?
That or behind the sofa
Or, in the case of small (preferrably fluffy) items - look near senior cats favourite sleeping place. He went through a fetish (for a while) of collecting single socks and using them to line is sleeping spot. Even more oddly, he preferred used socks..
One day we'll get a normal cat.
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Wednesday 4th July 2018 13:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Spitting Image got there first?
For those not familiar with it: The President's Brain Is Missing.
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Thursday 5th July 2018 08:34 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Spitting Image got there first?
Surprising how fiction got there long before reality... It took what? 8 more years for USA to admit that they had a person with dementia in control of the nuclear codes.
I don't think forgetting what the code was today is all that much of a problem.
Going full-out on the arms race, however was a problem. It lead to nasty self-reinforcing tunnel vision of an impending nuclear attack on the Soviet side:
Nuclear Close Calls: Able Archer 83
Thatcher was so concerned by how close the exercise had come to nuclear war that she ordered British officials to “urgently consider how to approach the Americans on the question of possible Soviet misapprehensions about a surprise Nato attack.”
The sad thing is that we are still in the same situation, more or less, driven by people who want to democratize and plunder ever last corner of earth.
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Wednesday 4th July 2018 13:48 GMT iron
Re: Can anyone shed light on how the recommendation soundbites are obtained
Some of them are probably quotes about other Patterson books and some of them will be cleverly edited from a negative review. For example Harlen Coben may have said "I read it in one gulp, you will too. It's that bad!" and Lee Child may have said "Delivers big time yawns, not the political thriller of the decade." but by careful omission those quotes can be made to sound positive.
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Wednesday 4th July 2018 12:53 GMT Pascal Monett
"making his way out of the White House through a secret tunnel"
Right, because there is a tunnel in the White House that the Secret Service doesn't know about/hasn't bugged and rigged full of detectors nor have a pair of Marines posted at either end.
I'm all for suspension of belief, but it has to be at least plausible. Give me a traffic jam and a sudden, inspired escape, and I'll go along because, even if dubious, it just might happen.
But a secret tunnel, unknown to an organisation who has been in charge of the White House for almost as long as there have been Presidents ? And this one new guy who has only been there for, at best, three to seven years, knows about it ?
Well that just about sums it up : I'll keep on reading Tom Clancy novels. When he pulls a Deus Ex Machina out of thin air, he's good enough to at least dress it up properly.
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Wednesday 4th July 2018 14:26 GMT Rich 11
Re: "making his way out of the White House through a secret tunnel"
Agreed. Obviously there is no such thing as an unguarded secret tunnel out of the White House, else why would Melania have had to dig her own?
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Thursday 5th July 2018 08:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "making his way out of the White House through a secret tunnel"
Secret passages you say? Thank $DEITY for Charles Stross.
Roger shakes his head. "I don't know, sir. We know the gateways link to at least three other planets. There may be many that we don't know of. We don't know how to create them or close them; all we can do is send people through, or pile bricks in the opening.'' He nearly bites his tongue, because there are more than three worlds out there, and he's been to at least one of them: the bolt-hole on XK-Masada, built by the NRO from their secret budget. He's seen the mile-high dome Buckminster Fuller spent his last decade designing for them, the rings of Patriot air defence missiles. A squadron of black diamond-shaped fighters from the Skunk works, said to be invisible to radar, patrols the empty skies of XK-Masada. Hydroponic farms and empty barracks and apartment blocks await the senators and congressmen and their families and thousands of support personnel. In event of war they'll be evacuated through the small gate that has been moved to the Executive Office Building basement, in a room beneath the swimming pool where Jack used to go skinny-dipping with Marilyn.
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Thursday 5th July 2018 13:50 GMT Antron Argaiv
... bargain basement shelf next to Mein Kampf.
Between Mein Kampf and The Art of the Deal, I would suggest, is a good place for it.
I started reading it when it came out, made it part way through the first chapter, and moved on to another book.
"Sunburst and Luminary" is quite interesting, BTW...
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Wednesday 4th July 2018 18:18 GMT Alistair
As if that’s not enough, President Duncan is also facing impeachment proceedings Thats, easy, just needs to pardon himself, its perfectly legal, all the big presidents do it while coping with a long term health condition Viagra can help that, Bill and fending off a pregnant would-be assassin and her cohorts. Just insist you didn't sleep with the assassin and the whole thing will go away, that is not the ninja costume you're looking for.......