Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
What judgment will history ultimately make about the eight-year presidency of Bill Clinton? Will he be judged by his achievements, such as reforming welfare, creating millions of jobs, creating budget surpluses instead of budget deficits, and protecting the environment? Or will it be judged by the seemingly endless scandals, both political and personal, that ate up so much valuable time? Was he a success or a disappointment? It may well be years before we have enough distance from the Clinton administration to look at it impartially. Joe Klein, who became famous as the mysterious "Anonymous" who wrote the political novel Primary Colors, has written a "warts and all" look at Clinton's terms in office, reflecting both his political strengths (his amazingly encyclopedic knowledge of any and every issue, his ability to find a "third way" between stereotypical Republican and Democratic philosophies, etc.) and his weaknesses (overindulgence in just about every human foible one can think of, among others).
Klein, who has had unparalleled access to Clinton over the years, is uniquely qualified to present an evenhanded and eloquent take on a man who was viciously hated by his (many) political enemies, but loved and -- it seems -- understood by average Americans who saw him as a human being just like themselves. Even those who feel they might be suffering from "Clinton fatigue" will find Klein's fair and honest portrayal well worth reading. (Nicholas Sinisi)
Nicholas Sinisi is the Barnes & Noble.com Current Events editor.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Joe Klein now tackles the subject he knows best: Bill Clinton. The Natural is the only book to read if you want to understand exactly what happened - to the military, to the economy, to the American people, to the country - during Bill Clinton's presidency, and how the decisions made during his tenure affect all of us today." "We see how the Clinton White House functioned on the inside, how it dealt with the maneuvers of Congress and the Gingrich revolution, and who held power and made the decisions during the endless crises that beset the administration. Klein's access to the White House over the years as a journalist gave him a prime spot from which to view every crucial event - both political and personal - and he sets them forth in an insightful, readable, and completely engrossing manner." The Natural is stern in its criticism and convincing with its praise. It will cause endless debate among friends and foes of the Clinton administration. It is a book that anyone interested in contemporary politics, in American history, or in the functioning of our democracy should read.
SYNOPSIS
Joe Klein, best-selling author of Primary Colors and one of our most brilliant political analysts, now tackles the subject he knows best: Bill Clinton.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Klein may have set himself a formidable task when he decided to evaluate Bill Clinton's fractious presidency and his enigmatic personality without the camouflage of the fictitious characters that populated his bestselling Primary Colors, but he's more than up to it. This insightful, often funny book which provides a serious and intelligent look at the successes and failures of the Clinton administration as well as an insider's view of the sometimes sordid, sometimes exhilarating political and personal battles that engaged the President succeeds on every level. Clinton's positions on health care, affirmative action, NAFTA, welfare reform and foreign affairs are straightforwardly explained, and Klein's considerable knowledge and sophisticated understanding of the political arena add depth and breadth to the explanations. Klein doesn't can't ignore Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, of course, and he argues that Clinton's willingness to take such shocking risks demonstrates an intrinsic weakness of tragic proportions. But Klein is even more critical of the fanatical press that fed on the affair, and the Newt Gingrich-led Republican ideologues and their subsequent suicidal impeachment mission. Klein also provides brilliantly illuminating caricatures of the political players who swirled around Clinton. North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms is an "antediluvian Visigoth," consultant Dick Morris "a prohibitively bizarre human being," and Gingrich is an "American Mullah" and a "faux revolutionary who tried to turn democracy into war." There will be numerous books written about Clinton and his presidency, but they will be hard pressed to capture the public and private Clinton as well as this one. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
The Lewinsky affair and parting-shot presidential pardons helped obscure President Clinton's achievements, notes Klein, who as Anonymous wrote the thinly veiled Clintonian novel, Primary Colors. Haynes Johnson's The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years is a more substantial investigation, but Klein's provocative musings, based partly on three interviews with the former president, have the advantage of being written after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Clinton is not greatly faulted here for not hunting down Osama bin Laden because neither the public nor Congress would have tolerated a lengthy ground war during the Nineties. According to Klein, his major accomplishments saving the Democratic Party from possible extinction, rekindling an interest in public service, and improving the lives of America's poorest citizens were misunderstood, if not unrecognized, by a public bloated from a diet of scandal fed by a blood-lusting media. Arguably the best politician of his generation, Clinton was the inheritor, not the creator, of uncivil partisan battles, which began during the 1960s and metastasized 30 years later into the "Gingrichization of politics." Unfortunately, Clinton's unseemly behavior was an easy target for his enemies. Recommended for public libraries. Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
Novelist and political analyst Klein argues that for all the scandal and political disappointments, Clinton's two terms in office quietly made good times a little better and left no huge mess for the next tenant to clean up. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Kirkus Reviews
"He remains the most compelling politician of his generation, although that isn't saying very much." So writes Klein, renowned political journalist and author of the roman a clef Primary Colors (1996), in this thoughtful assessment of the Clinton presidency in all its glory and infamy. Certainly the point is well taken: compared to the blinking Al Gore, the blustering Newt Gingrich, the blithering George W. Bush, Clinton was politics personified. He is to be admired for his brilliance and studiousness, Klein tells us; he is also to be scorned for having diminished his very real accomplishments with misguided episodes of sexual predation-a natural enough outcome, one supposes, for someone "whose self-involvement, self-indulgence, and, all too often, self-pity, were notorious," and who seemed to believe that he would never get caught. The Lewinsky scandal, Klein writes, blossomed just at the time when Clinton was finally beginning to master the art of being president, having grown into a sort of political maturity through years of trial by fire. Even so, with few true allies in Washington and a press that seemed to hate him, or at least "appeared obsessed with the President's personal failings," he was ripe for the fall from grace-to say nothing of the impeachment proceedings-that followed. That he survived all these vicissitudes, Klein suggests, is due mostly to the incompetence of his enemies and a public that, so long as it wasn't bothered by wars and economic downturns, was ever willing to forgive their leader's astounding transgressions. But, given his gifts, Clinton should have done much better by us-as Klein mercilessly shows, page by page, episode by episode, over eight eventfulyears. A supremely fascinating look at a "serious, substantive presidency." No journalist is better matched to this subject than Klein, and his analysis deserves the wide attention it's bound to get.
Home
