What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar

What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar is a folksy saying attributed to Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall. In the novel, its familiar humor gives a family conversation an unexpected political edge: Herman Roth invokes the saying’s pattern to declare that the country needs a new president.

Attribution and Reputation

Mr. Taylor identifies Marshall as a distinguished Wabash graduate, known nationally not simply for attending a small college but for serving as vice president from 1912 to 1920. He places the saying in the United States Senate, where Marshall, presiding over a debate, addressed the senators: “What this country needs,” he said, “is a really good five-cent cigar.” Mr. Taylor presents the line as famous nationwide, a folksy observation that had won the heart of Marshall’s generation.

The anecdote sits within a wider discussion of public achievement and political legacy. Herman recalls that Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court, the first Jewish member of that institution. His sons already know the story because he has told it before; what is new is the setting and volume of his telling, delivered in a Washington, D.C., cafeteria.

A Saying Repeated at Home

The Marshall anecdote is not new to the Roth children either. Herman has repeated the cigar line to Sandy and Philip, making a piece of national political folklore part of the family’s shared repertoire. Its familiarity allows the exchange to turn quickly: the saying is both a joke and a ready-made form for a political judgment.

Political Recasting

After laughing genially at Marshall’s remark, Herman changes its object. He proclaims, “What this country needs now is a new president.” The substitution converts a harmless, nostalgic saying into a pointed challenge to the current presidency, made before his family and the other cafeteria patrons. No riot follows; by refusing to quit, Herman seems almost to have won the day. The expression thus functions not only as a remembered joke but as a verbal opening through which he tests how openly political dissent can be spoken.