Obsessed: The Presidency & Illinois Senators Percy, Stevenson III, and Simon

“Many United States senators have dreamed of serving in the Oval Office, but few have made it,” Hartley writes. “Prior to Barak Obama’s 2008 bid, other Illinois U.S. Senators contemplated a run but between the 1950s and 1990s only three can be counted as actively engaged in the hunt, with widely differing outcomes.”

In his book, Obsessed: The Presidency & Illinois Senators Percy, Stevenson III, and Simon, Hartley traces the internal and external pressures that first nurtured than discouraged the bids of Charles Percy and Adlai Stevenson III. Paul Simon’s unsuccessful bid in 1988—the only of the three subjects to announce and campaign for the presidency—is covered in detail.

Even those long familiar with the complicated story of Illinois politics in the late 20^th century are likely to find surprising and new information in Hartley’s latest effort.

Former Decatur resident, Robert E. Hartley, the last editor of the Lindsay-Schaub Newspaper, Inc., chain, will discuss his new book, Obsessed: The Presidency and Illinois Senators Percy, Stevenson III, and Simon.

Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing at the October 5 event.