Show Notes

Matthew Algeo got the idea for writing The President is a Sick Man after visiting Philadelphia's Mutter Museum where the tumor removed from the mouth of Grover Cleveland in 1893 is among the exhibits.
Fascinated by such an oddity, Algeo found out that Cleveland was going into his second term as president when the operation took place--in secret.
Cleveland was incapacitated for six weeks until a rubber implant allowed him to speak again. But the American people never knew that at the time.
Algeo said that the president was able to keep the procedure secret due to the summer schedule followed in that era. "Congress took two months off in the summer so the president went to his summer home in Cape Cod where the operation took place," he said.
Cleveland's routine was to go fishing every day.  While he recovered and unable to speak, he waved off reporters who asked questions. One Philadelphia reporter filed a story in August 1893 about the president being a very sick man but the White House discredited the report. Formal details about the president's oral surgery weren't revealed until years later, noted Algeo.
Public awareness about a president's condition has been limited at other times, noted Algeo, citing the 1944 Democratic Convention when Henry Wallace was dumped from the ticket in favor of Harry Truman.
An ailing Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a fourth term as president. While the public was generally unaware of his condition, Democratic insiders knew that Roosevelt's vice president would likely advance to the presidency. FDR died just three months after taking office in 1945.
Among Algeo's other works is Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure, an account of the road trip Truman took with his wife after leaving the presidency in 1953.
"In those days, the president didn't get a pension. There was no Secret Service, no traveling entourage," said Algeo.
"Truman was the last U.S. president who didn't go to college but he knew how to campaign," the author said. In 1948, Truman was the standing president but trailed Thomas Dewey in all the polls.
"He made no bones about it when he was on the campaign trail. You need to read his speeches that year. He told labor groups: Don't blame me. Get out there and  vote."