Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency

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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...

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Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Bryan Burrough
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
The Observer
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.
Booklist
A straightforward, effective recounting of the ups and downs of a presidency shaped as much by personality as by policy.
Publishers Weekly

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
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781586485160
  • Publisher: Perseus Publishing
  • Publication date: 7/10/2007
  • Pages: 784
  • Product dimensions: 6.60 (w) x 9.40 (h) x 2.10 (d)

Meet 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.

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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
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Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 20, 2007

    Not a master yet

    This book focuses on Bill Clinton's first term in the presidency. More sympathetic and less salacious than Hamilton's previous study on Clinton, the book accurately conveys the ups and downs of the 42nd president's first term. The Clinton presidency from 1993-1997 was marked by massive successes and monumental failures and they are all detailed in this book. What is striking is that in his first year in office Clinton amassed a record of legislative achievement that is only matched by LBJ in the modern presidency. Yet the author agrees with most observers by arguing that that first year was an unmitigated disaster culminating in the Democrats' historic congressional defeat. According to the author, the reasons for the disaster were obvious: Clinton's utter lack of discipline, leadership, experience and preparedness for the job. The author does well by going through the litany of Clinton's strength and weaknesses and revealing how they manifested themselves in policy and on the country's (and world's) opinion of the young leader. While some may complain the author focuses too much on Clinton's personality one must remember that this book is a study of Clinton's leadership abilities during this first term and how they evolved. According to the author Clinton suffered from a weak chief of staff, a co-presidency (with Hillary) and a lack of conviction in his first two years but then prospered with a strong chief of staff, the sidelining of Hillary and sense of purpose in his third and fourth years. Though there is too much blame given to the first (Mack McLarty) and too much praise heaped on the second (Leon Panetta, who also, not coincidentally, is a major source for the book), the book does successfully argue that Clinton's first term was really two different presidencies. So which one was more successful? Again, in the first the Democrats lost congress and in the second Clinton won re-election so the answer would seem to be clear. But one must remember that the first years were marked by major accomplishments and the third and fourth years were marked by a lot of conciliation. The author makes his answer clear but gives enough information for an observer to form his or her own opinion. All in all this is a commendable book as it does give a comprehensive and detailed analysis of Clinton's first term.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 7, 2007

    An insightful first commentary

    The Mastering of the Presidency is an apt title for this new work by Nigel Hamilton. While the work is long, it is really a quick read and is fascinating. Living in Arkansas, and knowing many of the people in the book, I must admit that I was taken aback by some of the conclusions Mr. Hamilton reached. But, setting aside my personal feelings, I think that this was an objective review of the first Clinton term. I was particularly pleased that he did not become so wrapped up in the 'scandals,' that led to impeachment in the second term, although he appropriately sets the groundwork for what will surely be a third set. Some have criticized the work because it does not really offer something new. I disagree with that conclusion. In the first place, Hamilton carefully walks the reader through the first months of the Presidency, the different impacts that certain problems had on the office, and the discipline that came with Leon Panetta took over as Chief of Staff. In the process, we see Clinton evolve from an intelligent office holder into a creative, brilliant, and successful President. For example, the discussion of the showdown between President Clinton and the new 1994 Republican majority is excellent. Not only does Hamilton capture the mood of the country that led to 1994, he also outlines how Clinton understood the situation, accepted or rejected certain advice from advisors, and steered a course that let his leadership qualities shine. This work obviously does not have access to papers that will make biographies 25 years from now more complete. But, for those who would like to get away from the headlines and try to figure out how the White House became a working machine during President Clinton's first term, this is a must read.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 18, 2010

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