Sex With Presidents is a very entertaining book but it should honestly be called Presidents Cheating on Their Spouses because that's a majority of what's going on here. The book obviously focuses on the politicians who have the most to write about, so those are the adulterers even though there were many other Presidents with less interesting romantic lives. But this was interesting and I got a lot of good facts. Here are some of them:
Grover Cleveland
President Cleveland was accused of rape back when he was a politician in Buffalo. There was this whole thing where his alleged victim gave birth to a child named after Cleveland's best friend. Later, when she accused him once he gained more notoriety, his goons claimed it was his (late) friend's kid, not his. Supposedly Cleveland objected that because he didn't want to besmirch the memory of his friend, but it's hard to figure out what really happened here. What's even weirder is that after that, Cleveland married his late friend's daughter, who he had been caring for since his death and had known since she was born. She was only 21 and he was 48 when thy married.
Warren G. Harding
The stuff about Warren G. Harding is just the most ridiculous (until you get to Kennedy). But it's unexpected because you never really hear anything about Harding. But this guy was apparently being chased by tons of women, and sometimes getting together with them in a closet in the Oval Office. Interestingly, Harding spent a bunch of time over a couple visits at the Battle Creek Sanitarium set up by Dr. J.H. Kellogg, of "Kellogg's" fame. He tried eating cereal to lower his "insatiable libido" but it didn't work. Once, Harding even declared to the National Press Club that it was better he wasn't a woman because he'd always be pregnant. What's interesting is that everyone in the press knew about him, but nobody reported on it because it seemed ungentlemanly. Nobody, even his political opponents, would tell on him. It might have been especially damaging since he was the first President elected once women had the vote. Apparently some people attributed his success to his popularity with women. One of his mistresses lived until 1991.
FDR
FDR and Eleanor both had affairs. Although FDR's mom never wanted him to marry Eleanor, once he did she made sure he didn't divorce her. It's a common theme in these books. The President wants to divorce his wife to marry his mistress, but someone makes sure he doesn't, thereby saving his political career. There's some other information that's good to know in here. For example, although paralyzed, FDR wasn't impotent, according to three doctors who examined him. Eleanor seems to have been bisexual, having affairs with men and woman. At one point she was part of a trio with two other women. FDR must have approved, because he built them all a little cottage to live in together and he embroidered their initials on their linens.
JFK
JFK's sex lie was crazy. The way Herman describes it is basically him just using women up and throwing them away. And that he was bad in bed, but since power is a natural aphrodisiac, the women kept coming. Some of it is really bad though. Like when he impregnated his daughter's 15-year-old baby sitter and then she got an abortion. Apparently Jackie was in charge of choosing many of his women, which Herman compares to a similar position held by Louis XV's official mistress, Madame de Pompadour.
LBJ
"Johnson loved to watch homemade videos of animals mating, and during sex with her he would imitate the animals' bellows."
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