The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House

 

The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House – Bob Woodward

“Read my lips: No new taxes!” – Vice-President George Bush, 1988

“It’s the economy, stupid.” – James Carville, 1992

 

Bob Woodward has quite the reputation of churning out books, usually focused on those that inhabit Washington D.C., at a fairly brisk base. Fortunately, he retains his journalistic integrity, and his work never suffers in terms of quality.  Unlike some authors who may set out to write accounts of historical figures that encompass their entire lives and career, Woodward focuses on the everyday events around a high-profile figure within a much shorter duration.  In this case, he’s writing about the first year of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

To trace the appeal of the Arkansas governor and his victory of 1992, we probably need to start with President Ronald Reagan, whose main accomplishment was aiding in the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union.  A major accomplishment, but with it came an enormous price tag.  It didn’t help when his “trickle-down economics” never trickled.  Although we couldn’t see it at the time, he left his successor, George Bush, with a hefty tab that eventually came due.  The prudent (but unfortunate) thing to do, would be to raise taxes, but pledging to do so won’t win any elections, so Bush made an unwise promise in 1988 that he couldn’t fulfill.   4 years later, enter Bill Clinton.

During the 1992 campaign, Clinton made promises about a plan to fix the economic mess.  He outlined an agenda. He was a breath of fresh air. He capitalized when Bush ran a trainwreck of a reelection campaign.  He won.  All of the sudden, the country saw a lot of new, unfamiliar, well-scrubbed young faces in an around the oval office. Change was in the air.

Well, as Bill Clinton would soon learn, it’s easy to campaign with beautiful poetry, but when it comes to actually governing, one must use thought out prose instead.  He quickly realizes he’s in way over his head and he simply can’t get a grip on this economic monster and tame it to where it will make the bulk of the constituents and lawmakers in D.C. happy.  Running the country in Washington is a lot harder than running the state of Arkansas.

When author Bob Woodward walks us through the high-level events of Bill Clinton’s journey, and eventual occupancy, to the White House, this is a very engaging and informative narrative.  This type of writing is present for about half of this book.  The other half is tied a bit too tightly to the minutiae of governing. There are a ton of key capitol players to digest here including congressmen and women, cabinet members, campaign officials, policy experts, and of course Al Gore and Hillary.  We’re allowed at the table of their many fiscal meetings, but we really wish we weren’t. There’s an awful lot of economic detail here, and sometimes I wonder if anyone other than someone with a PhD in economics can really understand all the financial bickering that goes on in all these meetings. Sadly, the solutions never seem to work or even agreed upon among all the key players.  They have to go “back to the ol’ drawing board” over and over and over again.

You have to wonder if Bill Clinton had second thoughts about being elected president once he gets the job and realizes just how hard his promise is going to be to keep.  Let’s remember that this is Washington DC, and there are tons of folks on the other side of the political fence that want him to fail. They’re not going to go out of their way to make his job any easier. We must also remember that 24-hour news on cable tv was just starting to gain popularity during this time, and a lot of these shows cared more about ratings than they did telling people the truth.  So we see Clinton and company in high levels of frustration during many of these meetings.  We learn that Bill Clinton can scream and curse.

Experts will disagree on whether or not Clinton ever succeeded.  Yes, he “passed” his agenda, but not with the muster nor grandeur that he imagined.  He seems to have whimpered passed the finish line where many of the masses just became tired of listening and thinking about it.  This is probably true about the majority of political “victories” that are accomplished at the federal level, and to Bill Clinton’s credit, he did keep the momentum up and made significant dents and improvements during his second term.

Speaking of “second term”, none of that is here.  This book is about Clinton’s first year only. A bit of a relief. How many accounts of Clinton’s presidency are littered with accounts of Whitewater, impeachment, and Monica Lewinsky?  So the good news is that essentially all of that is absent.  This book accomplishes what it sets out to do.  It gives a good look at the Clinton administration surrounded by young, unfamiliar faces, and shows them plowing ahead in the face of adversity to try to change the country for the better.   One wishes, though, that we had more of a high-level view and not so much down-in-the-weeds detail, but the book is not overwhelming in length and is a fairly easy read.

Bob Woodward’s books are usually rewarding, and this one is no exception.