Rating: 
Summary: Tear down the wall
Review: "Inside the White House" offers a revealing look behind the workings of Americas highest office and the people who occupied it. It gives an interesting account of the lives of the modern presidents as well as the technical facts behind the Executive Branch, how much we spend on it, and how many are employed to protect and upkeep it. Interesting revelations about Johnson, Carter and Reagan. - Jim Stiene
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother me, I'm showering off this book...
Review: ...Sleazy? Yes. Entertaining? Yes, to a point. Many flawed men have served as president, but many of Kessler's sources come off as bitter and possibly unreliable. I wish some of these bubble headed secretaries Johnson slept with would come forward...other than that, I think this is just a nonfiction potboiler that Harold Robbins or Jacqueline Susann would have written. Note to future presidents: try to be nice to the help and just have sex with your wives or husbands, end rumor mongering and run the country.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Letdown
Review: As someone who has read a few of Kessler's books and loved them, this one was a complete disaster. I only give it one star for the tiny tidbits of sparsely scattered real information in this book, but that's certainly not worth the amount of money I had to pay for it.
Rating:
Summary: 20/20 vision through the bottom of a Coke bottle
Review: Has a decent person ever inhabited or worked in the White House? Apparently Not. Written with the authority of a person who worked intimately with our Presidents for decades. But wait, did he ever work in the White House?? More focus on the interactions between the President and staff, senior staff and junior staff, etc., would have provided insight in the the inner workings of the White House. However, the focus was on sweeping old skeletons from the walk-in closets. I understand the intent was to show the human frailty of any person who inhabits the office - but mix in a few good stories and show some balance. I must say - it was entertaining reading. There was shock value, and some old rumors were made to sound more credible. I'd recommend giving it a read. I was looking for some more "nuts and bolts", but for anyone interested in the Presidency from a laymans view, you will probably enjoy the book. If you are looking for something more academic, read "The Twilight of the Presidency".
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing book about the secrets of the White House
Review: Heard the taped version of INSIDE THE WHITE HOUSE by
Ronald Kessler . . . this is a fun and gossipy, behind-the-scenes
look at what really takes place at the stately institution . . . Kessler
based his work on interviews with secret service agents,
domestic servants, air force one stewards, military aides,
chefs, and ushers . . . you'll be amazed, as I was, at how
much is actually spent to run the place--many of the
costs being "buried" in numerous budgets that seemingly
have nothing to do with the white house. In addition, I learned that:
President Johnson had the Secret Service install a buzzer
system to alert him if his wife approached while he was
fooling around with his secretaries. President Ford's staff, after he lost to Jimmy Carter, showed
its displeasure by eating "anything in the mixed-nuts bowl but
the peanuts. they then threw them all over the place," said
Gerald Pisha, another Air Force One steward. While the first family pays for the incremental cost of
food--the grocer's bill for a lamb chop--it does not pay for the
higher cost of preparation. Nor does the first family pay for
personal telephone calls, which come out of the annual
appropriation for the Executive Residence, or the flowers,
which cost $252,000 a year.
Rating:
Summary: White House Gossip, Rumors, and Hearsay
Review: I had read Kessler's "Inside the CIA" as well as his "FBI" and expected some of the same factual, referenced analysis. However, what I got from "Inside the White House" was gossip and rumors sandwiched between mundane information such as favorite foods of the presidents. Few want to hear Kessler slime the office of the presidency as he does. Kessler tries to provide some analytic framework towards the end but it is way too little, too late.
Rating:
Summary: Food, Food and Food
Review: I looked forward to reading this book. However, it was very gossipy and anecdotal and most of all, Ronald Kessler seemed to devote every third page to the favourite menus of each president. Still, an entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: wanted to give this a 5 rating
Review: i wanted to give this a 5 rating but after finishing it, you notice that carter and clinton are so much more picked apart than nixon, ford, regan and bush. the republicans are held, for the most part, in highter esteem than the democrats. i recommend this book still though.
Rating:
Summary: Trashy, but makes you think
Review: I'll admit, this is a gossipy, trashy book. I'll admit Kessler's writing style is uneven - he often jumps topics with little warning. But I'll also admit I couldn't put this book down - and it really made me think about the too-high standards we often set for presidential candidates. Did Bill Clinton do anything different that LBJ or JFK? No, it's just that we live in more open times now, and the press isn't as willing to cover information up like it did before. I look forward to reading more of Kessler's books.
Rating:
Summary: Writer places sensationalism over facts
Review: IF you're interested in a poorly edited, gossip-filled, unreferenced, non-sourced book, then this is for you. Kessler drops innuendos and rumors throughout the pages, with very few sources or substantiation given.
The choppy editing is embarrassing. Whole sections appear to be out of place, relating to items that had been mentioned pages before or have yet to be dealt with.
This kind of book is a scary and dangerous thing.
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