Cullen (Born in the USA) unmasks
\t\t the major mistakes of 11 American presidents. Some of his choices are
\t\t predictable, such as FDR's fumble in trying to subvert the judiciary. Other
\t\t choices seem quirky. Lincoln's greatest error? Arrogantly criticizing Methodist
\t\t minister Peter Cartwright when the future president was a young man. Clinton's
\t\t real misstep was not his failure to keep his pants zipped, but his health care
\t\t plan. Cullen overreaches when he suggests that this political disaster was
\t\t linked to Clinton's sexual shenanigans: in Cullen's view, Clinton delegated
\t\t health care reform to his wife "in part [as] an act of personal atonement for
\t\t marital infidelity." Cullen singles out the invasion of Iraq as the current
\t\t president's grossest blunder, with his mishandling of Katrina a close second. A
\t\t few of the portraits are redemptive. LBJ, who engaged in electoral fraud to get
\t\t elected to the Senate in 1948, later signed the Voting Rights Act into law.
\t\t Cullen's grand conclusion takes the tone of a tedious inspirational speech and
\t\t trades in clichés ("Effective governance is a two-way street") as he
\t\t pedantically explains that what really matters is not who the president is, but
\t\t "who the people are" and what presidential behavior the American electorate
\t\t will accept. This is a sadly thin contribution to presidential history. B&w
\t\t illus. (Mar.)
