ABSTRACT
On the seventieth day of his presidency, Ronald Reagan was almost shot to death by a pathetic misfit named John Hinckley. Before the horrifying events of March 30, 1981, swept other news aside, the media had been devoting a considerable amount of time and space to the administration's efforts to fashion a government. More precisely, to fill some 400 jobs at the top of the executive branch, patronage positions outside the competitive civil service. The guide to this relatively small but important cluster of jobs is a quadrennial document that goes by the bland title United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions (Y4.P84/10: P75/980). It is, of course, better known by its popular name, the “Plum Book.”
