Red, White and Blue-Laura Hayden

Red, White and Blue
Laura Hayden
Tyndale, Mar 1 2009, $13.99
ISBN: 9781414319407

Emily Benton is elected President of the United States. The first female PROTUS asks her best friend Kate Rosen to be her Chief of Staff; a position in which the President must fully trust the aide to provide poignant often unwelcome truths and honest advice.

Kate has doubts about accepting the job as she is a deeply religious person who fears the corruption of the White House will cause her to slip from her first loyalty to God. However, she rationalizes her decision by thinking she can bring the Lord’s Commandments into a place where avaricious grabbing of more power is everything and faith is left behind in the pack of disregarded morals. Whatever she chooses, Kate will be tested by friendship, belief, and loyalty especially when scandal erupts over a corpse.

The timing is perfect with the Inauguration of a new President as RED, WHITE, AND BLUE provides deep insight into the changing of the guard, who has easy access, and everyday life inside the White House (not just the Oval Office). Emily is an interesting first female president as she makes decisions that at times pamper her support group at the cost of the greater good (must be the first commandment of politicians). Kate with her vacillation and her change from idealist to doubting cynic makes a case that there is little room for a truly deep religious person in political DC even running the faith based initiatives program whose function is to pamper the PROTUS support base. Her relationship with Emily’s former husband Nick seems ingenuous and fake though key to a unique triangle power struggle. Still fans will enjoy this fine look at the White House through mostly the lens of a deeply devoted religious person.

Harriet Klausner