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Fred Hatef
Author's Bio
Joe Klein was born on September 7, 1946, in New York City. He graduated from the Hackley school and the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in American civilization. In 1969, he became a reporter for a newspaper in Massachusetts called "Essex Country," he was an editor for Rolling Stone, and was a consultant for CBS news. He won the National Headliner Award in 1994 for his column ¡°Public Lives.¡± Currently, he lives in Westchester County, New York, with his family.
Bill Clinton: The Mistakes that Made the Man
Joe Klein's book, The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton, discusses Bill Clinton's two terms in office as President of the United States of America1. He wrote the book after Clinton¡¯s presidency to analyze and decipher the events of his administration. Klein says, "By force of personality and sheer persistence, he had slowly dragged Washington toward a recognition that a revised form of government might be appropriate in the anarchy of an instant economy¡ª but he had won his victories in dribs and drabs; his defeats had been far more memorable."2 Although the Clinton presidency had many victories and accomplishments, they were overshadowed by his mistakes and faults, particularly the Lewinsky Scandal. Klein goes deep into the White House, and writes the book after Clinton¡¯s time in office in an attempt to eliminate political motive and possible bias from the book, and try to rationally analyze Clinton. Klein explains both the accomplishments and mistakes of the Clinton presidency and analyzes how the Clinton White House functioned from the inside. Klein explains that Clinton¡¯s staff called him ¡°The Natural¡± because they didn¡¯t know what Clinton¡¯s nature was and they didn¡¯t know what was coming.
Klein starts off by describing Clinton before his presidency and during the campaign, and also illustrates his relationship with Clinton. They were both on the same party and they were both ¡°New Democrats¡± (Although the definition of that word was quickly expanded to include anybody who would vote for Clinton), and Klein explains how he believes that Clinton slightly tilted towards the left, away from education and welfare reform, towards his health care plan for America. Clinton became the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council after the job was offered to him by Al From, the former president of the Democratic Leadership Council. Clinton wasn¡¯t sure whether to accept this post or to run for Governor again; in time he chose to do both. Klein believes that Clinton was one of the few politicians who managed to remain ideologically pure, and who kept his devoted Democrats happy. Without keeping them satisfied, Clinton could not have won the nomination in 1992. Klein, being with Clinton during his presidency and campaign, knew what Clinton was thinking about. Clinton knew that he would have to improve himself and chance his stance on various subjects such as foreign policy and social issues if he wanted to be elected President. Clinton had to be more aggressive and less of a pacifist when it came to foreign policy, and narrow his view on social issues such as gay rights. Klein believed that some of Clinton¡¯s views were created merely for the public, and he knew that Clinton was uncomfortable with some of his views. But Clinton knew he needed political credibility, and he knew he could not win the presidency without that credibility. After some debates and speeches, he won the election and became President of the United States of America. He claimed his focus was going to be on the economy. Clinton assembled a team of six advisors and tried to deal with the economy more seriously, attempting to balance the budget. On the subject of Clinton¡¯s economic team, Klein said, ¡°Clintons new economic team¡. was pleasantly surprised by the President¡¯s willingness to take this monumental political risk, and by his ability to assimilate complicated macroeconomic concepts¡¡±3 Clinton was able to risk himself politically and be able to create advanced economic plans in a matter of weeks.
Klein continues the book by describing Clinton, his staff, his relationships with his staff, and the Gingrichs. The Gingrichs were the supports of Senator Newt Gingrich, the Republican opponent of Clinton. Clinton¡¯s Vice President, Al Gore, was most well known for his dry wit. Gore supported government reform, and promoted his ¡°Reinventing Government¡± reform portfolio, which became known as REGO. Clinton¡¯s wife, Hillary Clinton, wanted Bill to concentrate ¡°like a laser beam¡± on selling her own health insurance reform. The battle was on between Gore and Hillary Clinton, Old Democrats vs. New Democrats. Each wanted Clinton to have different priorities, and Clinton himself wanted his top priority to be the economy. REGO was strongly opposed by Hillary Clinton and her camp, who all saw REGO as government bashing and a distraction of the President from health care. The Joint Chiefs of Staff who served one term, Colin Powell, was the one who advised the president to try and maintain order in Somalia, which became known as ¡°mission creep.¡± The failure of mission creep, and Clinton¡¯s abandoning of Somalia are examples of one of the Clinton Administration¡¯s biggest problem, the military. ¡°From the beginning of his presidency, there was indeed the sense¡ª radiating from the Gingrich wing of the Republican party¡ that the new President was a usurper who had managed to hoodwink the American public.¡±4 Newt Gingrich was a Republican opponent of Bill Clinton. Klein believes that The Clinton era is likely to be remembered more for the fierceness of its prosecutions than for the severity of its crimes, and that Newt Gingrich was the one politician who personified that fierceness. Gingrich took down Bush in 1990, and turned his full attention to Bill Clinton.
Joe Klein continues the book by describing Bill Clinton¡¯s relationship with his wife, Hillary Clinton, both personally and politically: Klein said, ¡°The quality and texture, and the nature, of the Clinton marriage was the great abiding mystery of his presidency.¡±5 Klein saw Clinton¡¯s relationship as mysterious, and yet knew of the obvious political influence his wife had over him. Most of the speculation over Clinton and his wife at the time was vapid¡ª the kind of stuff you would see on a tabloid. The public once thought that her control of the health care policy was just to maintain an image and illusion that their marriage was still alive. Hillary Clinton once said, ¡°We know everything there is to know about each other, and we understand each other, and we understand and accept and love each other¡±6 The irony of this statement is that at the time she was unaware of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Klein analyzes how radiant Hillary Clinton would always look during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and explains two theories. One, that she was trying to rekindle America¡¯s spirit and try to keep them moving despite scandals, and two, that because she was invigorated by the crisis and because her husband needed her help desperately at that time, she was an essential element in his defense. After the whole health care fiasco, the First Lady seemed to be wounded and depressed, and these wounds only seemed to deepen in Clinton¡¯s second term. This only increased the curiosity and the air of mysteriousness of her marriage.
The final chapters of the book deal with Clinton himself, his personality, his moods and how he dealt with the Lewinsky scandal and its effects on his presidency: ¡°To Clinton¡¯s circle of friends and employees, his habits, excesses, and eccentricities had become both legendary and entirely predictable over the years.¡±7 The Lewinsky affair was shocking and disgraceful but not completely unpredictable. Klein examines Clinton¡¯s behavior as both outrageous and pathetic, ¡°lawyering¡± his way through his lie, and defining what sex was. The Lewinsky affair gave his opponents a weapon to strike him down with, and it was the most embarrassing moment in Bill Clinton¡¯s presidency. Clinton pulled many all-nighters, even when his opponents weren¡¯t testing him, during his campaign. But during his presidency, he cut back on all-nighters slowly. Clinton had a temper, he would get angry often, and the public never got to see this side of Clinton. He hid it well behind his sophisticated communication systems. Clinton was angry of Kenneth Starr¡¯s investigation of him of any office misuse, and Klein theorized that he was more angry that his enemies had found a crack in the wall of his personal life they were able to drill through. The First Lady believed she was betrayed both personally as a wife and politically as an ally. Klein ends the book by describing how he believed Clinton was a great leader and President despite the negative public image he has.
In The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton, Joe Klein tries to convince the reader that despite Bill Clinton¡¯s bad reputation and public image, he was still a great leader and accomplished much. Klein believes that Bill Clinton¡¯s accomplishments are often overshadowed by the more embarrassing moments of his presidency such as the Monica Lewinsky scandal: ¡°He would lead by example; he would astonish them with his ability to keep his focus, despite the overwhelming distractions.¡±8 Clinton¡¯s ability to continue to focus on his goals as president despite all of his problems is considered by Klein to be one of the more extraordinary aspects of Clinton. Overall, Klein¡¯s point he was trying to get across is that there is more to the Clinton presidency than just the Lewinsky scandal and his lies in the Paula Jones court case, where Paula Jones sued him for sexual harassment. Klein¡¯s political point of view influenced and biased some of his writing: ¡°We were, in fact, from the same part of the ideological jungle: a rather obscure, eclectic tribe known as the ¡°New Democrats.¡±9 Klein was probably biased towards Clinton based on the fact that they both were New Democrats and Klein agreed with many of Clinton¡¯s political positions. Due to this, Klein was inclined to write more positively towards Bill Clinton. Klein may have had political motivation for writing this book: it was published in 2003 so the book may have been an attempt to create a positive image for the New Democrats, possibly gaining them some support, and so this and his friendship influenced his writing.
In a review in Washington Monthly, written by Kenneth S. Baer, Baer believes that Klein¡¯s message is that, despite Clinton¡¯s personal failures, he still ran a respectful presidency. Baer says that another message Klein is trying to convey is that Clinton was president at the wrong time. The time he was president didn¡¯t need a president as great as him, and he was unfortunate for that. Baer says that the book is a witty and savvy account for the Clinton years. Baer agrees with Klein on his analysis of Clinton and that he is a great president. Baer agrees with Klein on most of his statements, that Clinton was a great president, that economically he was a deficit hawk, and that despite Clinton¡¯s personal failure he still focused on his larger goals and was a great president. In January Magazine, senior editor J. Kingston Pierce wrote a review of the book. Both Baer and Pierce believe that the book is more of a mediation on Clinton¡¯s legacy rather than an account of it. Baer and Pierce agree that Clinton could have accomplished much more as president had not his enemies brought him down using the Monica Lewinsky scandal: ¡°Clinton assumed that economic globalization was inevitable¡. He also believed in the classical theory of free trade¡¡±10 They all agree Clinton was an important factor in helping the economy, that his theory turned out to be right and America saw the biggest tax cut in the history of the world. Both Baer and Pierce enjoy the book and believe that Klein fairly criticized Clinton for his faults, but mostly supported him and attempted to create a better image for him.
The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton is a book that attempts to rationally analyze the presidency of Clinton. Klein wrote the book after his presidency, after all the scandals to try and be fairer about it. Klein was able to think rationally and clearly, despite having a little bias in it. He would fairly criticize Clinton for his faults, and fairly praise Clinton for his accomplishments: ¡°His behavior, during the affair and after, was both outrageous and pathetic.¡±11 Klein acknowledged that Clinton¡¯s actions and reactions during and after the scandal were not the way that a president should behave. He knew Clinton made a mistake, and it couldn¡¯t be denied. Klein wasn¡¯t trying to prove that somehow Clinton was the perfect president; he attempted to logically present information and then analyze it with his own thoughts. Sometimes, Klein was hard to understand, as he would periodically praise Clinton for his legislative and political actions, yet constantly criticize him for his personal failures and his pitiful attempt to try and maintain his credibility. The book is a great way to get an understanding of the presidency and to dig deep into Clinton¡¯s thoughts.
Klein believes that Clinton changed America today for the better. His Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 created the longest economic expansion period in US history; NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) was heavily supported and endorsed by Clinton, even though it first took effect during Bush¡¯s presidency. Klein believes that between 1970 and 2000, the Republicans gained much power over the Democrats, mainly because in the elections of 1994 the democrats lost both houses to the republicans for this first time in over forty years: ¡°He had rescued the Democratic Party from irrelevance and pursued a new philosophy of governance that made public-sector activism plausible once more, even in a time of national apathy and skepticism.¡±12 Klein thought that the era was very skeptical and that there was too much national apathy, and thought that Clinton managed to overcome those obstacles.
The period between 1970 and 2000 marked a watershed in American political, economic, and cultural history. The Watergate scandal helped bring the rise of national apathy, and a belief that no matter what something was, if the government did it then they were wrong. People started to question the government more, and politically the Republicans gained more power. The economy grew stronger, thanks to Bill Clinton¡¯s efforts, and America became more internationalist than isolationist in terms to foreign policy. Social change also occurred, people became more concerned with their personal future than that of others, students dreamt of entering colleges, and people became less concerned with the national agenda: ¡°Although, in the late twentieth century, young audiences had become a rather rare political phenomenon¡ªpolitics was rapidly becoming the exclusive province of the old.¡±13 Klein also recognized the rise of political apathy in the youth.
Overall, Klein¡¯s main goal was to convince the reader that Clinton¡¯s presidency was strong, despite weak public image: ¡°Bill Clinton conducted a serious, substantive presidency¡¡±14 Klein was able to rationally analyze the presidency for the most part, although he was biased a bit towards Clinton being a New Democrat and sharing the same political views. Clinton¡¯s presidency was overshadowed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and his lie under oath in the Paula Jones court case. Clinton¡¯s presidency brought a change in politics and domestic issues. Throughout Clinton¡¯s scandals, destroyed hopes, bitterness, and anger, a large amount of work was done on his part. Clinton really was The Natural.
Endnotes
1. Klein, Joe. The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. Broadway Books, New York. 2002
2. Klein, Joe 14.
3. Klein, Joe 50.
4. Klein, Joe 86.
5. Klein, Joe 114.
6. Klein, Joe 115.
7. Klein, Joe 162.
8. Klein, Joe 4.
9. Klein, Joe 26.
10. Klein, Joe 79.
11. Klein, Joe 163.
12. Klein, Joe 217.
13. Klein, Joe 215.
14. Klein, Joe 216.
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