The biggest challenge for an author tackling the history of the Situation Room, the basement room of the White House where some of the biggest intelligence crises have been handled in recent decades, is the room itself. As a setting, it's pretty underwhelming. In “The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis,” George Stephanopoulos describes how the room — actually a series of rooms — for much of its history didn't live up to its reputation in popular imagination or media.