Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency

by Nigel Hamilton

Overview

From best-selling, award-winning biographer Nigel Hamilton, this is an insightful, prodigiously researched, and wonderfully readable account of Bill Clinton's first term in office. It shows how a well-meaning but naïve new president failed to assert true leadership in his first two years, and then illustrates how, in an astonishing act of self-reinvention, the president turned defeat into victory. Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency is a gripping tale of hubris and redemption—and a chronicle of one of the most dramatic reversals of fortune in modern American politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781586485849
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	07/10/2007
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	768
File size:	853 KB

About the Author

Nigel Hamilton is the author of Monty, JFK: Reckless Youth; Bill Clinton: An American Journey, and Biography: A Brief History. He is a Fellow of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Table of Contents

Prologue     xiii
Paradise Lost
The Freshman     3
Inauguration     5
Investment or Deficit Reduction?     17
A Perilous Transition     23
Attorney General     41
Gays in the Military     46
Camp David I     54
Camp David II     67
Hillary's Mess     72
Addressing the Nation     76
The Clash of Civilizations     83
The World Trade Center Is Bombed     85
Waco     90
Eisenhower Republican?     93
Reducing the Deficit     99
The Red Queen     113
Star Wars     115
Politics as a spectator Sport     129
Lani Guinier     134
A Shrinking President     143
Vince Foster     147
Mending the Economy     157
The Economic Bill     159
An Indian Summer     173
Addressing Health Care Reform     181
A Ship of Fools     185
Black Hawk Down     187
The Harlan County Fiosco     194
Troopergate     199
Inspector Jackson     201
Harry and Louise     219
NAFTA Passes     228
Conspiracy     231
Shaming the President     233
A New Era of Voyeurism     245
Low Tide     249
The Black Pen     257
The Swing to the Right     259
Pandora's Box     268
Proximity to Disgrace     277
An American Platonov     281
The President Never Adjourns     286
The Fury of An Aroused Democracy     289
Drawing the Line     291
McLarty Is Replaced     295
Exit Health Care Reform     300
War in Haiti     305
Expressions of Personal Hatred     307
Clinton's War     310
The Junta's Time Is Up     315
The Contract with America     331
Newt Gingrich     333
Blueprint for the Neo-Reaganite Future     341
Midterm Meltdown     349
The Funk     357
At the Crossroads     359
Wooing the DLC     368
In the Tiger's Den     379
Veering Right     383
Paradise Regained
A Comeback Fellow     393
A President's Epiphany     395
Mexico: The First Crisis of the Twenty-first Century     400
Dying by the Sword     406
The General's Doorbell     410
A New Strategy     413
State of the Union 1995     417
The Turning Point     430
Oklahoma City     435
The Plot Against America     437
His Finest Hour     441
In the Aftermath of Oklahoma     447
Turning the Battleship     457
Triangulating Morris     459
First Veto     471
Endgame     480
Commander-In-Chief     487
Srebrenica     489
Operation Deliberate Force     494
Affirmative Actions     498
Peace in Bosnia     511
A Historic Power Struggle     519
The Full Clinton     529
In the Pinching Cave     531
Achilles' Heel     535
Standards of Behavior     539
Cease-Fire     547
King Billy     553
Theater of the Absurd     559
A Gift from Heaven     561
The Second Suicide     567
A Winner Emerges     573
Monica, Act II     581
Dole's Faustian Bargain     583
Inquisition     587
Bound to Blab     590
Beating Republicans at Their Own Game     596
Exit Monica     599
Getting Rid of the Clutch     601
The Death of Ron Brown     608
The Summer Of '96     611
A Darker Challenge     613
Outflanking Dole     623
The Fall of Morris     628
The Debates     635
Dole's Prayers Are Not Answered     637
A Question of Character     645
Acknowledgments     657
Notes     661
Bibliography     721
Index     729

Editorial Reviews

Authorial idiosyncrasies aside, the book has its merits. Hamilton ably illustrates Clinton's strengths and weaknesses as a leader, how he thrived whenever the occasion called for him to inspire or commiserate, and how time and again his failures could be traced to what Hamilton calls his "inability to function as a manager of men and women in a structured environment"…And a few of Hamilton's insights do feel fresh. He is especially smart on the internal dynamics of Hillary's famed right-wing conspiracy, advancing the case that it was Clinton's own failures during his first year in office that emboldened those Arkansas troopers to come forward in 1993, which led to David Brock, Paula Jones and the long national stumble down sleazy street.
—The Washington Post

Bryan Burrough

Scintillating biography, Hamilton's specialty, with a few nods to psychoanalysis, lies not just in telling us what happened but why and how it happened. As he follows William Jefferson Clinton from straitened beginnings to glorious success, he tries to burrow inside the man, to think as he thought, to see through his eyes the decisions that had to be made.

The Observer

A straightforward, effective recounting of the ups and downs of a presidency shaped as much by personality as by policy.

Booklist

This second volume of the author's biography casts Clinton's first term as a Miltonian epic of fall and redemption. The years 1993-1994, culminating in the Democrats' loss of Congress in midterm elections, are "Paradise Lost": a disastrous failure caused by a weak White House chief of staff (Mack McLarty), Clinton's own promiscuous openness to ideas and indecisiveness and, most of all, "co-president" Hillary's baleful influence. 1995-1996 are "Paradise Regained": a new chief of staff (Leon Panetta) restores order, Hillary learns her place and Clinton grows a spine, comforts the nation after the Oklahoma City bombing, humiliates Newt Gingrich and wins reelection. (Alas, enter Monica Lewinsky, "a luscious fruit in the Garden of Eden, eager to be plucked.") Hamilton styles this arc, with many military metaphors, as a study of Clinton's maturing capacity for "command" as he grows from "arch-baby boomer" to "undisputed leader of his country." Unfortunately, this focus on character often overshadows the substance of policy (the treatment of Hillary's byzantine health-care plan is especially sketchy) and is not entirely convincing, since the early, feckless Clinton seems to have accomplished more than the "determinedly presidential" later Clinton, with his third way politics of triangulation. At the celebratory end of Hamilton's account, Clinton's comeback is a merely personal triumph, devoid of political significance. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Biographer Nigel Hamilton takes an unbiased look at the controversial and highly talked about presidency of William Jefferson Clinton--the ups and downs, highs and lows, and, yes, the sex scandal that nearly ended it all. Hamilton writes with an eye to the utmost detail yet never ceases to compel and entertain his readers. James Adams delivers the work in a tone that projects its importance, and his ear-pleasing Arkansas accent brings an air of realism. Hamilton offers his own take on the events in question but never stands on a soapbox to preach his own ideals and opinions on the matters in question. The result is a truly intriguing account of what it’s like to be president of the United States. L.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2008 - AudioFile