An Unforgiving Look at What Clinton Did Right and Wrong

THE NATURAL

The Misunderstood Presidency

of Bill Clinton

By Joe Klein

Doubleday

232 pages, $22.95

Journalist and author Joe Klein has for years followed the scandals and triumphs of former president Bill Clinton. In 1996 Klein even published a novel, “Primary Colors,” loosely based on the Clinton administration, and hid behind the alias Anonymous. The book attracted a good deal of attention not just for the salacious insider knowledge that readers thought it provided--never mind that it was a work of fiction--but also because the book’s author, initially unnamed, turned out to be Klein, a fact to which he did not readily confess.

In his latest book, Klein has chosen to cover the Clinton administration in a more direct manner. “The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton” is a brilliant assessment of Clinton’s two terms by Clinton, his White House associates and the author, who expresses, as many people do, profound admiration and profound disappointment in the first Democrat reelected to a second term since FDR.

Klein and Clinton met while the latter was still the governor of Arkansas. The two men were born in the same year, 1946, and were part of the same moderate “ideological jungle,” Klein writes, known as the New Democrats. In the course of covering Clinton’s presidency, he came to view it as “tumultuous, sloppy, often brilliant, exhausting--and elusive.” Although the author considers Clinton the most gifted politician of his generation, he also views him as the most malleable. (Astonishingly, Clinton’s administration spent more money on polling, Klein says, than all of the previous administrations combined.)

The author wisely chooses neither to declare Clinton a demon nor proclaim him a saint. He was both, and perhaps the most complex president this country has ever had. He was stubborn, gregarious and needy; he had a “shocking” temper, an amazing intellect and a genuine love of his country. He had a frustrating inability to make up his mind. He adored flattery and hated delivering bad news. Clinton was also “a creature of his own audience, besotted with his ability to charm, constantly trying to please,” Klein writes, and his “self involvement, self-indulgence, and, all too often, self-pity, were notorious.”

Although Klein clearly admires Clinton’s many gifts, he is not afraid to state the harsh realities of his many failures, including attempting universal health care and failing to have a cohesive foreign policy in international trouble spots. Klein notes that as Clinton prepared to give his 1998 State of the Union speech--which his staff spent days examining for potential Lewinsky-esque double-entendres--the president could not point to a single great accomplishment of his administration, only minor ones.

Perhaps this was because of the many scandals that he and his wife weathered--including Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, Whitewater and Travelgate--or because Clinton seems to have led his administration like a college dormitory. It’s hilarious and shocking to read about the endless, exhausting meetings that went nowhere; the frequent all-nighters; the Diet Coke and smelly pizza boxes scattered throughout the White House.

The president’s first six months in office, Klein says, were characterized by “mayhem” and “disorder” and considered by many to be “the worst in modern history.” Whatever victories Clinton ultimately had, and he did have some, were in “dribs and drabs,” writes Klein, while “his defeats had been far more memorable.” Yet the failures were not entirely Clinton’s fault; Klein points out that a general loss of civility in Washington’s political culture was caused by the rise of Newt Gingrich, which led to excessive bipartisan squabbling. Yet the president often fought hard to push through legislation he believed in, and sometimes his determination paid off.

As for “the great abiding mystery” of the Clintons’ marriage, here, too, Klein is insightful and thorough. Rather than offer juicy gossip as fact, Klein concludes that Clinton probably did worship his wife, and their union probably was strongest when Bill was in crisis and needed to lean on Hillary. Klein also believes there was real affection and chemistry between them, because he inadvertently witnessed some of those moments in covering them as a reporter. Partners, lovers, best friends and occasional adversaries all seem to describe the roles they have played with each other. In other words, the Clinton marriage is every bit as complicated as the president (and no doubt Hillary) seems to be.

Ultimately, Klein is less disturbed by Clinton’s personal scandals than by his inability to foresee the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He asserts that after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, the president should have been far more forceful in addressing the terrorism threat. Instead, Clinton authorized occasional, minor strikes against terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, including one that seemed timed to deflect attention from the Lewinsky scandal.

In Bill Clinton, the public was comforted by having a president who seemed to know more than we did (unlike the sense that some people have of our current president), and someone who fought to vastly improve the lives of poor Americans. In this he succeeded. Yet his behavior during the Lewinsky scandal, and the manic 177 pardons he granted his last night in office, make him a figure as pathetic as he is impressive. In the end, he managed to alienate even some of his closest friends.

It’s reasonable for anyone to question reading still another book about the Clintons. Yet no other book published on the subject thus far offers such smart analysis, judicious reporting or accomplished prose. Klein’s account of the presidency is remarkably balanced and intelligent. What kind of president was Bill Clinton? A very good one. And sometimes a very bad one.