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Lamar Alexander

@SenAlexander • 115,935 subscribers

THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is available now. Updates from former United States Senator Lamar Alexander. 7th generation Tennessean born and raised in Maryville.

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In my new memoir. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and describe lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. Preorder now:

In my new memoir. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and describe lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. Preorder now:

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In 1974, when I was 34, I won the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee. I lost the general election because voters were mad at Republicans about Watergate and because people said I was a “stuffed shirt.” So, when I wanted to run again four years later, my wife, Honey, said, “Wait a minute. First, I want to know 𝘸𝘩𝘺 you're running. What do you hope to accomplish? And second, could we have a different sort of campaign?” So we talked about it with some other people, and she said, "Well, why doesn't Lamar just do what he likes to do? He likes music, he likes to walk, he likes to meet people, he likes the outdoors." And then she said, "Why don't you just walk across the state?" And you don't walk across the state in a blue suit. So she and I went down to Friedman's Army Surplus Store on Hillsboro Avenue in Nashville, and we bought all the red-and-black plaid shirts they had. We added it to the two I already had, and I wore one of those shirts every day on my 1,022-mile walk across the state. I did my best to shake hands with 1,000 people every day and spent the night with 73 families, most of whom I had not known before. I sank deep into the music, stories, and character of our state. I saw firsthand that Tennessee was third from the bottom in family incomes, there was little interest in bettering the education system, and the "anything is possible" spirit I grew up with in Maryville was not prevalent in the community.

In 1974, when I was 34, I won the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee. I lost the general election because voters were mad at Republicans about Watergate and because people said I was a “stuffed shirt.” So, when I wanted to run again four years later, my wife, Honey, said, “Wait a minute. First, I want to know 𝘸𝘩𝘺 you're running. What do you hope to accomplish? And second, could we have a different sort of campaign?” So we talked about it with some other people, and she said, "Well, why doesn't Lamar just do what he likes to do? He likes music, he likes to walk, he likes to meet people, he likes the outdoors." And then she said, "Why don't you just walk across the state?" And you don't walk across the state in a blue suit. So she and I went down to Friedman's Army Surplus Store on Hillsboro Avenue in Nashville, and we bought all the red-and-black plaid shirts they had. We added it to the two I already had, and I wore one of those shirts every day on my 1,022-mile walk across the state. I did my best to shake hands with 1,000 people every day and spent the night with 73 families, most of whom I had not known before. I sank deep into the music, stories, and character of our state. I saw firsthand that Tennessee was third from the bottom in family incomes, there was little interest in bettering the education system, and the "anything is possible" spirit I grew up with in Maryville was not prevalent in the community.

Lamar Alexander

161,384 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

Reagan’s experienced “team of rivals” helped to save his presidency. In 1987, when Reagan fell into trouble over the Iran-Contra scandal, he telephoned Howard Baker, who was in Miami on a family vacation. Joy Baker answered the president’s call. “Where’s Howard?” Reagan asked. “At the zoo," Joy Baker answered. “Wait ‘til he hears about the zoo I have for him,” Reagan said. Reagan made Baker chief of staff and asked him to get to the bottom of the scandal. Giving Baker that assignment was not without risk. Fourteen years earlier. Baker had helped to bring down another Republican president: Richard Nixon. “We are here to save the president, 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥,” Baker told the new White House counsel, A.B. Culvahouse, Jr. His “team of rivals” cleaned up the scandal, and Reagan left office on a high note. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Reagan’s experienced “team of rivals” helped to save his presidency. In 1987, when Reagan fell into trouble over the Iran-Contra scandal, he telephoned Howard Baker, who was in Miami on a family vacation. Joy Baker answered the president’s call. “Where’s Howard?” Reagan asked. “At the zoo," Joy Baker answered. “Wait ‘til he hears about the zoo I have for him,” Reagan said. Reagan made Baker chief of staff and asked him to get to the bottom of the scandal. Giving Baker that assignment was not without risk. Fourteen years earlier. Baker had helped to bring down another Republican president: Richard Nixon. “We are here to save the president, 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘥,” Baker told the new White House counsel, A.B. Culvahouse, Jr. His “team of rivals” cleaned up the scandal, and Reagan left office on a high note. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR is out now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Lamar Alexander

36,485 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

According to Bill Clinton, Tennessee Democratic House Speaker Ned McWherter introduced him to Al Gore. I describe that meeting and my relationship—and competition—with Clinton in Chapter 31 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. “You two should get together. Al here knows everything about everything. Bill can explain it so people can understand it,” McWherter told Clinton and Gore at the Tennessee Governor’s residence. McWherter also relied on Clinton for advice. “Ned asked me, 'How do you get a woman interested in you when you’re 80?’ Tell her you’re ninety,” Clinton replied. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

According to Bill Clinton, Tennessee Democratic House Speaker Ned McWherter introduced him to Al Gore. I describe that meeting and my relationship—and competition—with Clinton in Chapter 31 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. “You two should get together. Al here knows everything about everything. Bill can explain it so people can understand it,” McWherter told Clinton and Gore at the Tennessee Governor’s residence. McWherter also relied on Clinton for advice. “Ned asked me, 'How do you get a woman interested in you when you’re 80?’ Tell her you’re ninety,” Clinton replied. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Lamar Alexander

13,075 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

Gerald Ford refused to run a television commercial that his campaign consultant Doug Bailey thought would have reelected the President. I tell that story in Chapter 17 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. After pardoning Nixon in 1974, Ford was 22 points behind Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election polls. Bailey and his partner John Deardorff helped Ford cut Carter’s lead to two points by election day. To the tune of a campaign song, “I’m Feeling Good About America,” the consultants made a television commercial focusing on Ford’s likability. Two years later, when Bailey was my consultant in my race for governor, he showed me a Ford commercial that was not so cheerful. It began with gunshots recalling the September 1975 assassination attempts against the president. The black-and-white commercial was so unsettling that Ford refused to use it, though Bailey told me he believed it would have won the election. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Gerald Ford refused to run a television commercial that his campaign consultant Doug Bailey thought would have reelected the President. I tell that story in Chapter 17 of my new memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. After pardoning Nixon in 1974, Ford was 22 points behind Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election polls. Bailey and his partner John Deardorff helped Ford cut Carter’s lead to two points by election day. To the tune of a campaign song, “I’m Feeling Good About America,” the consultants made a television commercial focusing on Ford’s likability. Two years later, when Bailey was my consultant in my race for governor, he showed me a Ford commercial that was not so cheerful. It began with gunshots recalling the September 1975 assassination attempts against the president. The black-and-white commercial was so unsettling that Ford refused to use it, though Bailey told me he believed it would have won the election. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Lamar Alexander

17,009 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

In Chapter 10 of my memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I tell about watching President Lyndon B. Johnson disappear into the back room Capitol office of Republican Minority Leader Sen. Everett M. Dirksen while they wrote the Civil Rights Bill of 1968. This taught me a lesson about the “reasoning together,” as LBJ called it, that it usually takes to pass an important law. LBJ had told his vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey, “The bill can’t pass unless you get Ev Dirksen. You and I are going to get Ev. He’s got to look good all the time.” Johnson was not the only president who practiced “reasoning together." On the Nixon staff, I wrote memos for the president’s bipartisan meetings with congressional leaders. Democratic House Speaker Tip O’ Neill called Ronald Reagan the “worst president,” but they worked together. So did Sen. Trent Lott and President Bill Clinton, even while Lott was trying to convict Clinton in an impeachment trial. These lessons served me well as governor when I had to work with a Democratic legislature. In the Senate, it took a while for me to be able to work with President Obama. In his first six years, Obama achieved few bipartisan results. But later we worked together to lower student loan interest rates and on education and medical innovation laws that Obama called “Christmas miracles,” and the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called them the most important laws of that session of Congress. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is out now from Post Hill Press. You can order here:

In Chapter 10 of my memoir, THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I tell about watching President Lyndon B. Johnson disappear into the back room Capitol office of Republican Minority Leader Sen. Everett M. Dirksen while they wrote the Civil Rights Bill of 1968. This taught me a lesson about the “reasoning together,” as LBJ called it, that it usually takes to pass an important law. LBJ had told his vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey, “The bill can’t pass unless you get Ev Dirksen. You and I are going to get Ev. He’s got to look good all the time.” Johnson was not the only president who practiced “reasoning together." On the Nixon staff, I wrote memos for the president’s bipartisan meetings with congressional leaders. Democratic House Speaker Tip O’ Neill called Ronald Reagan the “worst president,” but they worked together. So did Sen. Trent Lott and President Bill Clinton, even while Lott was trying to convict Clinton in an impeachment trial. These lessons served me well as governor when I had to work with a Democratic legislature. In the Senate, it took a while for me to be able to work with President Obama. In his first six years, Obama achieved few bipartisan results. But later we worked together to lower student loan interest rates and on education and medical innovation laws that Obama called “Christmas miracles,” and the Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called them the most important laws of that session of Congress. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is out now from Post Hill Press. You can order here:

Lamar Alexander

21,206 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten

Bob Corker had a hard time deciding which job he wanted—governor or Senator. He chose the Senate, but the job he liked best was mayor of Chattanooga, and I explain why in Chapter 42 of my new memoir THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. I had a terrific day in Chattanooga last week talking about my new book with Corker (Senator Bob Corker), my former Senate colleague, at an overflow meeting of 300 Rotarians. I also talked with Local 3 News anchor Greg Glover (I once watched Greg when he was the high-stepping drum major of the UT Pride of the Southland Marching Band) and Alison Lebovitz of The A List. I swung by the WDEF studio, and I also chatted with state Sen. Bo Watson (Bo Watson) for his podcast, Tennessee Today. It was a good opportunity to talk about how much has changed in the Scenic City over the past few decades—from the Volkswagen plant to the Tennessee Aquarium—right at a time Chattanooga is hosting the men's soccer team from Spain for the World Cup. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Bob Corker had a hard time deciding which job he wanted—governor or Senator. He chose the Senate, but the job he liked best was mayor of Chattanooga, and I explain why in Chapter 42 of my new memoir THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP. I had a terrific day in Chattanooga last week talking about my new book with Corker (Senator Bob Corker), my former Senate colleague, at an overflow meeting of 300 Rotarians. I also talked with Local 3 News anchor Greg Glover (I once watched Greg when he was the high-stepping drum major of the UT Pride of the Southland Marching Band) and Alison Lebovitz of The A List. I swung by the WDEF studio, and I also chatted with state Sen. Bo Watson (Bo Watson) for his podcast, Tennessee Today. It was a good opportunity to talk about how much has changed in the Scenic City over the past few decades—from the Volkswagen plant to the Tennessee Aquarium—right at a time Chattanooga is hosting the men's soccer team from Spain for the World Cup. In THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP, I paint portraits of the presidents I worked with, tell stories about what I saw behind the scenes, and recount the lessons I learned about American politics and our country’s future. THE EDUCATION OF A SENATOR: FROM JFK TO TRUMP is available now from Post Hill Press. You can use this link to order:

Lamar Alexander

10,690 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

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