For Love of Politics

 

For Love of Politics – Sally Bedell Smith

The presidency of Bill Clinton was unique in that, in many people’s judgement, the presidency was actually a co-presidency that was shared with wife Hillary. This never went over well with many people, regardless of whether or not they voted for the man. The main thesis of this book, though, is that Bill and Hillary were always a team, and they always accomplished quite a bit together. Although author Sally Bedell Smith acknowledges that they were successful in most of their endeavors, she doesn’t leave the reader with a strong affection for either of these individuals.  I wouldn’t call this book “mudslinging” by any means, but individuals who picked up this book with positive sentiments about Bill and/or Hillary are likely to be put off a bit.

This book mainly focuses on the eight years that the couple occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There’s a bit of background, but the focus here is how the two worked together during the Bill Clinton presidency.  This book does focus somewhat on the worldwide events that occurred from 1992 – 2000 that demand a president’s attention, but I never felt that this was really an in-depth look and the many issues that presidents deal with, yet rather how Bill and Hillary worked together through these events.  We read, for example, that during the first year or so of Bill’s presidency, Hillary comes across as a co-president as opposed to the First Lady, and most aren’t happy with this. The country simply wasn’t used to a FLOTUS propagating something serious such as universal healthcare. Realizing this, the couple wisely learn that it’s best if Hillary fades a bit into the background and does much of her work behind the scenes. This doesn’t really seem to bother them. As long as they can get their poll numbers back up, who really cares?

Hillary mostly comes across as a not-too-nice person, and most within the White House prefer to deal with her by not dealing with her. Many times, though, she seemed more of the “brains” between herself and her husband. “Brains” though, aren’t necessarily the main ingredient needed for a successful presidency. Personality, charisma, and charm tend to be what keep the populace polling high, and this is where Bill shines his best as opposed to Hillary. He seems to know how to woo and captivate an audience and we see this time and time again. How else could the man poll so high during the latter years of his second term when much of his Whitewater testimony revealed that he was basically a womanizing sleazebag?

And yes, there are plenty of Bill’s extramarital affairs covered in this book. Sometimes the reader wishes they owned a mainframe computer to keep track of all the names of the women the man was involved with during his political career. Of course, Monica Lewinski gets much of this book devoted to her escapades with the 42^nd president. We read about their trysts ad-nauseum.  So much so, that it can be quite the distraction while reading, yet one remembers the exact same thing to be true about the Clinton presidency itself. Nothing else going on in the world ever seemed to matter, nor was interesting as the stained blue dress. It seemed like that was all the public ever heard about while watching the news.  In fact, whenever there was some sort of worldly crisis, critics and skeptics couldn’t help but wonder if the event was ever as newsworthy as the White House made it out to be, or if the Clintons were simply trying to divert attention away from the tabloid goings on.

Strangely, all of Bill’s infidelities never seemed to bother Hillary as much as it should have. You almost got the impression that she simply accepted these frivolities as part of her husband’s character, and she seemed resigned to not caring what her husband did as long as he didn’t get caught. She always seemed more concerned about how his behavior affected her future political career as opposed to any damage that might occur to herself or her family.

Once the Lewinsky affair and impeachment is mostly behind them, the two then focus on propelling Hillary’s next political move - a run for Senator of the state of New York. Sadly, this drains focus (and a lot of money) away from Al Gore who is now trying to become the next president. Sadly, Gore knows he has to distance himself from Clinton in order to become the next president, but Bill and Hillary don’t make things easy when they seem to devote so much time to her campaign as opposed to his.  You almost get the feeling that Bill and Hillary know that if they make the right moves, they will be back in the White House, which is what the two of them covet more than anything.  Plus, if Gore does get elected, it will be harder for Hillary to run a successful campaign in 2004, so Al Gore seems to get the “expendable” treatment. Since the Gore-Bush election was so close, you have to wonder if Al Gore could have prevailed had Bill and Hillary not been so self-centered. So, yeah, according to the author, Al Gore definitely was dealt the short straw, and one has to wonder how different things would have been had Bill learned to keep his pants zipped up.

The author seems to spend a lot of time talking about frivolous things; such as the many different outfits and hairstyles Hillary wears and has during the eight years. Maybe, some people care about such things. It’s also probably more of a “woman” thing. We also read an awful lot about Bill’s troubled golf game. It seems that, next to marital infidelities, golf is his secondary hobby. He isn’t very good at this hobby, though, and we’re constantly reading about how he fudges his golf score and scowls at anyone who suggests that this practice might be unfair. These little sidebars seem a tad unnecessary, but I guess they do help the reader understand the two main players a bit better.

So this was not a happy book. One gets the impression that history won’t look as favorably on Bill Clinton’s presidency as one might expect based on his poll numbers. This book was a rather sad tale of husband and wife who would do just about anything, including many things immoral and unethical, to get the coveted prize of the U.S. presidency.

NOTE: This book was written in 2007, long before Hillary ran against Donald Trump in 2016. In many ways, one could argue that Hillary lost that election partly because she simply wasn’t very likable, and one can’t help wonder that if she and her husband behaved a tad bit differently twenty years earlier, if history would have gone in a different direction. It definitely takes a unique person to lose an election against a narcissistic idiot like Donald Trump.