Bill Clinton - My Life
Sun., August 8, 11:08 AM
Bill Clinton – My LifeThis is one lo-o-ong read – nearly a thousand pages. I kept it by my pillow for so long I almost titled this post “Sleeping with…” But why get the guy into more trouble?
I wrote about how much I anticipated Hillary’s book and reviewed it after I read it, almost exactly a year ago. Let me tell you, Bill’s book is better written and, despite its length, easier to read.
To be sure, he had the advantage of plenty of time, and he had an enormous amount of help. He had someone to organize the letters and papers from his early life, and there were assistants who did the same for his presidential papers. Let us not forget the typist who converted his longhand notebooks into print. In addition, one of his friends did a periodic “oral history” during the eight years he was president, enabling him to chronicle his presidency month by month. (Of course, having just read Eats Shoots and Leaves, I was delighted to see that someone actually knew how to use semicolons properly.)
I always feel good when I see that someone from a background entirely different from mine has come to the same conclusions. I wrote last June that very few people are ALL GOOD or ALL BAD (Mother Theresa and Osama bin Laden being among the exceptions). How fascinating to watch Bill Clinton describe flawed people by their good sides, rather than by their faults. The attitude seems to come from the teachings of his grandfather, who – southern white man though he was – seems to have had a very good side as well. The only one who doesn’t seem to have any redeeming social qualities is Kenneth Starr (and I concur).
The most important part of Bill Clinton’s life is Hillary and Chelsea. That fact is so obvious that you wonder why he would risk losing them to do something stupid – but then, he’s not the only man I’ve know to do such a thing, and only another man can explain why. Beyond that, he loves people and he loves politics, and those loves govern his life. Indeed, it makes a fascinating story.
At least five hundred pages is devoted to the eight years of his presidency – the frustrations, the heartbreaks, and the triumphs. The constant news leaks when temporary secrecy was really important. (For example, trying to make peace in Ireland or the Middle East.) The journalists who never published the good things if there was something damaging to write. I remembered many incidents as he wrote about them, and was glad to find additional information. Sometime during the second term I stopped reading the news, and his commentary filled in what I had missed. I was just so disgusted with the so-called independent counsel, who continued digging where there was nothing to find (and wasting millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money), not to mention the newspapers that concentrated on the scandal. Strait-laced Americans were horrified, but the rest of the world thought it was a big joke. (I discussed it with friends overseas. They thought it was hilarious, but it did not lessen their respect for the U.S.) Our Puritan history comes back to haunt us all the time.
Time magazine polled its readers to determine whether they wanted more of the same; the readers didn’t, but that didn’t stop the editors from printing the same old thing. I canceled my subscription when every issue was half full of “news” I wasn’t going to read.
Now, I will admit that I like both Bill and Hillary Clinton, and I know that many of you do not. But even if you “don’t believe a thing that man says,” I would urge you to read this book anyway. Tell yourself it’s fiction, and you’ll read a helluva good story.
