Clinton Book Gets Off to a Bad Start

Daily Times (Pakistan) ^ | Khalid Hasan

[hole_n_one]

Clinton book gets off to a bad start

Washington: Former US President Bill Clinton’s much-awaited book, ‘My Life,’ had got off to a bad start with the country’s most influential newspaper, the New York Times, giving it a scathing review.

Michiko Kokotani, the reviewer, while crediting Mr Clinton as being capable of “soaring eloquence and visionary thinking,” also calls him being equally capable of “numbing, self-conscious garrulity.” She compares his book to his speech at a presidential nominating convention in Atlanta which was “so long-winded and tedious that the crowd cheered when he finally reached the words ‘In closing ...’.” She goes on to call the book “sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull - the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history.” She says in many ways, “the book is a mirror of Mr Clinton’s presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration.”

According to Ms Kokotani, “This memoir underscores many strengths of Mr Clinton’s eight years in the White House and his understanding that he was governing during a transitional and highly polarised period. But the very lack of focus and order that mars these pages also prevented him from summoning his energies in a sustained manner to bring his insights about the growing terror threat and an Israeli-Palestinian settlement to fruition.”

‘My Life’ that Dan Rather of CBS has compared to the celebrated memoir of the American Civil War by President Ulysses S Grant, the reviewer argues “has little of that classic’s unsparing candour or historical perspective. Instead, it devolves into a hodgepodge of jottings: part policy primer, part 12-step confessional, part stump speech and part presidential archive, all, it seems, hurriedly written and even more hurriedly edited. In fact, ‘My Life’ reads like a messy pastiche of everything that Mr Clinton ever remembered and wanted to set down in print; he even describes the time he got up at 4 a.m. to watch the inaugural ceremonies for Nigeria’s new president on TV. There are endless litanies of meals eaten, speeches delivered, voters greeted and turkeys pardoned. There are some fascinating sections about Mr Clinton’s efforts to negotiate a Middle East peace agreement (at one point, he suggests that Yasir Arafat seemed confused, not fully in command of the facts and possibly no longer at the top of his game), but there are also tedious descriptions of long-ago political debates in Arkansas over utility regulation and car licence fees . There are some revealing complaints about missteps at the FBI under Louis Freeh’s watch , but there are also dozens of pointless digressions about matters like zombies in Haiti and ruins in Pompeii.”

While pointing out that the former president confesses that his affair with Monica Lewinsky was “immoral and foolish,” the reviewer adds that Mr Clinton “spends far more space excoriating his nemesis, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, and the press. He writes at length about his awareness that terrorism was a growing threat, but does not grapple with the unintended consequences of his administration’s decisions to pressure Sudan to expel Osama bin Laden in 1996 ... or to launch cruise missile attacks against targets in Sudan and Afghanistan in retaliation for the embassy bombings in 1998 ... Part of the problem, of course, is that Mr Clinton is concerned, here, with cementing - or establishing - his legacy, while at the same time boosting (or at least not undermining) the political career of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

Ms Kokotani while acknowledging that Mr Clinton admits how damaging his affair with Ms Lewinsky was, accuses him of spending far more time on “assailing right-wing enemies for his woes over Whitewater, the Paula Jones case and impeachment. In the end, he says, what brought him and his wife back together was weekly counseling sessions and their shared determination ‘to fight off the right-wing coup.’ He sheds little new light on his relationship with Mrs Clinton, simply noting that he always admired her mix of idealism and practicality, and that she initially hesitated over his marriage proposal, knowing that ‘being married to me would be a high-wire operation in more ways than one.’ In another passage, Mr Clinton tries to characterise his impeachment fight as “my last great showdown with the forces I had opposed all of my life.”

According to the reviewer, in comparison to these “self-serving, often turgid attempts to defend his reputation,” Mr Clinton’s account of his youth in Arkansas possesses a pleasing emotional directness. “Looking back on those days of living with a violent, abusive stepfather, Mr Clinton writes like someone familiar with therapeutic tropes. He writes that seeing his stepfather angry and drunk, he came to associate anger with being out of control, and determined to keep his own anger locked away. He writes about experiencing a ‘major spiritual crisis’ at the age of 13, when he found it difficult to sustain a belief in God in the face of his family’s difficulties. And he writes about the coping mechanisms he developed ... where he walled off his anger and grief to get on with his daily life.”

Te review concludes by observing, “The nation’s first baby-boomer President always seemed like an avatar of his generation, defined by the struggles of the 60’s and Vietnam, comfortable in the use of touchy-feely language, and intent on demystifying his job.

And yet the former President’s account of his life, read in this post-9/11 day, feels strangely like an artifact from a distant, more innocent era. Lies about sex and real estate, partisan rancour over ‘character issues’ (not over weapons of mass destruction or pre-emptive war), psychobabble mea culpas, and tabloid wrangles over stained dresses all seem like pressing matters from another galaxy, far, far away.” khalid hasan

[hole_n_one]

Clinton Book Gets Off to a Bad Start

Clinton Book Hype Reaches Climax

I'm beginning to detect a theme.

[Paleo Conservative]

Amazon.com is already discounting it.

[Jumpmaster]

I've heard this "soaring eloquence" rap before. Any examples? His speaches would have put me to sleep, were I not yelling at the TV.

[FoxInSocks]

The arrival of boxes of his books at a downtown D.C. bookstore led off the 11 p.m. news. They were playing up the "growing crowd" of people waiting until midnight to get their grubby hands on a copy. I felt like throwing up.

[Paleo Conservative]

His speaches would have put me to sleep, were I not yelling at the TV.

Famous Clinton quotes:

but I didn't inhale.

boxers!

That depends on what the meaning of "is" is.

I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski.

[goldstategop]

Bubba's book is media driven and not cause people flock to the guy.

[hole_n_one]

I probably should have highlighted in some way, the words get off, when attempting to draw a parallel between the two headlines.

[NYC GOP Chick]

They discount all best-sellers 40%. And this *will* sell big - that's not to say that it will be *read* though...

[datura]

Libraries as well as bookstores should place it in their "Fiction" section.

[Paleo Conservative]

I probably should have highlighted in some way, the words get off, when attempting to draw a parallel between the two headlines.

How about this one? Clinton Book Hype Reaches Climax

[hole_n_one]

How about this one? Clinton Book Hype Reaches Climax

I give up.

[ambrose]

Amazon discounts everything.

[nopardons]

That's because our side will NOT buy the book and his kneepadded,drooling sycophants CAN'T read!

[kristinn]

An eyewitness report had hundreds of people lined up tonight at Politics & Prose for the midnight release. I figure they're consumed with pent up Reagan envy.

[hole_n_one]

An eyewitness report had hundreds of people lined up tonight at Politics & Prose for the midnight release. I figure they're consumed with pent up Reagan envy

The line is swelling......

Psyche!
lol!

[phil_will1]

"I figure they're consumed with pent up Reagan envy."

I saw a poll on CNN tonight that indicated that Americans view Reagan as a more effective President than Clinton by a margin of 69% to 29%. I would not have guessed that it would be by more than 2 to 1.

[nicollo]

I drove by Politics and Prose on upper CT Ave at about 9:40, and there was one TV van with escalated antenna and some twelve homely, sulking types perched like fat pigeons along the storefront.

If the crowd since grew to 100, I'd say it was more to do with the presence of the TV crew than with any anticipation over a BOOK YOU COULD BUY ANY AND EVERY WHERE tomorrow whenever it is you choose to get your pathetic behind out of bed.

I so wished I had a camera with me. When I passed, it was truly an event waiting to happen. Any "event" that has become of it is life imitating art, not the other way around... or maybe that, too... it's all so pathetic, especially the Amazon.com spam I got tonight that discounts the book to 21 bucks.

Gee, it's gonna take more than a few or more million copies sold at that discount to pay back that advance.

[pepsionice]

950 pages...lets get real. 98 percent of the US has never read a book over 400 pages in their life. It would take most folks at least 3 months to wrap up this literally piece. I doubt if they have the patience by the end to finish it. Its the National Enquirer in Bill's format.

[Happy2BMe]

New York Times review

The book, which weighs in at more than 950 pages, is sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull — the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history.

In many ways, the book is a mirror of Mr. Clinton's presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration. But the very lack of focus and order that mars these pages also prevented him from summoning his energies in a sustained manner to bring his insights about the growing terror threat and an Israeli-Palestinian settlement to fruition.

"My Life" has little of  classic's unsparing candor or historical perspective. Instead, it devolves into a hodgepodge of jottings: part policy primer, part 12-step confessional, part stump speech and part presidential archive, all, it seems, hurriedly written and even more hurriedly edited.

Monica Lewinsky in a statement released today, countered President Clinton's Book "My Life"

I have had enough! This whole experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth and I can't stomach any more. I feel as if I am getting the shaft, that this ugly matter has come to a head and blown up in my face. This may be a load to handle, but when things are hard, that is when I am at my best. I have faced hard things in the past and I know what is coming. I will meet the challenge the only way I know how: head on. I have licked bigger things than this before, and I will again. No one will ever be able to say that Monica Lewinsky isn't a finisher, that she quit before the job was done. I will work non-stop and fight this blow by blow, until I am wiped clean of this dirty affair. I will not be stained by it. As for Bill Clinton, I hope he gets a stiff penalty. Thank you

Internet Home Of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

[goldstategop]

At least he got a book out of it.