Rating: 
Summary: The Natural (Lite)
Review: I am a fan of Joe Klein's from his columns in the New Yorker magazine and bought his book after just finishing First in His Class by David Morannis, the biography of Bill Clinton from birth the his announcement that he would seek the presidency in 1991. I enjoyed Klein's book and in fact read it in two quick days. However, it was somewhat disappointing. While clearly not intended to be exhaustive, it was meant to clarify and synthesize Clinton's policy making decisions during his 8 years in office as well as their political overtones. While most of the major content areas are present and accounted for (e.g. failed health insurance reform, welfare reform, effect of the Lewinsky scandal, etc.), the synthesis is hard to find and make sense of. Klein seems to be arguing that Clinton's efforts became less grandiose and more effective as he learned how be a good president, but simultaneously continued to demonstrate his personal flaws and shoot himself in the foot. This is not really a novel conclusion, and probably not worthy of a whole book. If Klein's thesis is more complicated than this, it is not well articulated in the book, and better editing is needed. More likely, future books will tackle this topic more effectively as history provides more of a context for Clinton's accomplishments and failings. Buy this book only if you are truly curous about Clinton now and can't wait for other authors to complete their work.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and poignant - but not much more than that
Review: Klein's account of Clinton's presidency is interesting, in-depth, and well-researched. But he fails to get at the essence of what he originally set out to do (that is, decipher the type of president Bill Clinton actually was). Indeed, the book was more descriptive than explanatory and the writing, at times, tended to be confusing and jumbled.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: If you want an insider or inside the beltway look at the clinton presidency, this book is sure to satisfy. If you want a look at the flaws and strenghts of current boomer generation of politicians, this is sure to satisfy as well. Klein does a good job of looking at clinton within the context of the whole, the modern bloodsport of politics, the games the spin and how clinton mastered and ran amok by these things. If a clinton sympathizer this book will have you cheering at times, boiling at other times. If you are jaded by politics today, you will be 'emerald' after reading this book. However,I think he is too forgiving of Clinton's tendency to self destruct due to his own personal/character weaknesses. He is too generous in his analysis when he begins to explain why clinton failed because 'He was never really tested'...and at times I think he still struggles with TB-itis (reference from primary colors).
Rating: 
Summary: This is a very very interesting book
Review: This is a great, balanced biography that's full of good fact. It's a really easy read and isn't filled with stupid poli-sci jargon. You can learn a lot about the misunderstood presidency of Bill Clinton from this book. I was worried this would be a horrendous slander of Clinton's presidency, but it turned out to be very truthful and entertaining. A lot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: DON'T BUY THIS BOOK
Review: In fact, I've written to Doubleday asking for a refund. There is not a single new fact, concept or idea anywhere on the 217 pages of this major disappointment. This book is like reading back issues of newspapers -- after you've read them the first time! Klein also has a disturbing inclination (via multiple references) to pooh-pooh ethical lapses of government officials by trivializing them in the overall scheme of things.Unacceptable. Too bad,as I enjoyed "Primary Colors" but this is a cheap follow up.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful, balanced, unflattering but disorganized
Review: This book isn't likely to please either Clinton's critics or defenders. Joe Klein essentially argues that Bill Clinton was a man both of many virtues and many flaws, and I think that is a fair assessment of this book as well. On the one hand, this is perhaps the first attempt at a fair and reasoned understanding of who President Bill Clinton was. Most books on Clinton have either been poorly documented and badly researched attacks on him, or well documented and better researched books explaining how poorly documented and badly researched that first wave of books was. In other words, books like Conason and Lyons superb THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT, provided a massive amount of documentation correctly the scurrilous attacks of Clinton's previous critics. These books, however, primarily say much, much more about Clinton's attackers and the attackers of the attackers rather than about Clinton himself. The great virtue of THE NATURAL is that Klein attempts to focus primarily on Clinton himself. Bill Clinton disappointed Joe Klein. Clinton was, in Klein's estimation, enormously knowledgeable, intelligent, well intentioned, and insightful. Why, then, was Clinton not a great president? Klein has several answers to this. First, Clinton was never really tested as president. There was never a serious crisis facing the US during his eight years in the White House, nothing comparable to 9-11 or Pearl Harbor or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Therefore, there was a sense in which he was never tested. Klein does, however, point out that Clinton does not, perhaps, get the credit he deserves for his role in providing the US with eight of the most peaceful years in US history. Second, Klein shows a number reasons that Clinton was ineffective as president, Monica Lewinsky aside. For instance, his ability to see both sides of issue frequently made it difficult for him to decide which side he was going to come down on. Other problems include his love of meetings and intellectual jam sessions rather than making decisions; his inability to work well with the press; poor decisions regarding the make up of the White House Staff; his constant attention to polls and aligning his policies with them in mind. On the other hand, Klein also wants to give Clinton his due. His two terms were eight years of unhindered economic growth, which Klein in part credits Clinton for because some key decisions he made. For instance, lowering the national debt and engendering surpluses, which made possible lower interest rates. He also praises him for the earned income credit, which was for all practical purposes a lower class tax cut for the working poor. In this instance, money was given to those in the greatest need, but to take advantage of it, one had to be working. Klein points to many other similar achievements that had a substantive effect on the US economy; not terribly sexy accomplishments, but having a very definite effect on the US economy nevertheless. Some of the best sections of the book are Klein's discussions of and interviews with previous Senate and House Leaders from both sides of the aisle, who lament the decay of bipartisanship that was brought about by the Gingrich revolution. The criticism in this book is not partisan. In fact, there seems to be more regret on the part of the Republicans interviewed, like former GOP House Leader Bob Michel and Bob Dole, than by Democrats. I also found his reflections on why the Baby Boomers have yet to produce a truly great political leader comparable to leaders of previous generations. The book, however, has some very serious organizational problems. In fact, it isn't clear that the book has any organization at all. There are chapter markings, but it isn't clear why. The topics and events covered flow into each other, and there is not clear demarcation of subjects. In short, the book seems to ramble from one topic to another, sometimes leaving a subject for good, sometimes returning to it at a later date. Nonetheless, this is a very interesting book that both Clinton's detractors and his defenders can read with profit. And the probably effect on any open-minded individual will be to make his critics a little more appreciative of his positive contributions, and his defenders a bit more critical of his presidency.
Rating:
Summary: The Natural also tells us a lot about Joe Klein.
Review: He had & still has a pronounced love-hate relationship with President Clinton. It seems that Clinton feels the same towards him. Mr. Klein, in turn is impressed with the president & all his talents: his communications skills, grasp of facts, connection with people & vast intellect. He is equally disappointed by Clintons shortcommings of self absorption, sense of entitlement & foolish personal behavior. Those weaknesses disgusted him (as they did all of us). Mr. Klein also gets some rips at Newt Gingrich, George W. & Al Gore. In fact, Mr. Klein does not have much good to say about any "boomer" politicians. They have not the sense of honor, integrity, perhaps gravitas of Lloyd Bentsen, George sr. or Bob Dole. But Clinton bested them all one way or the other. Clinton could not control his appetites & that diluted everything he tried to accomplish. It made him an "average" president. In short, a great opportunity for him & America was lost.
This is a very well written book. As the years past there will be better biographies (including Clinton's own). But it now has the advantage of being one of the first. Mr. Klein's skill with the English language & his vocabulary make him a very good writer. Read or listen to this one before it becomes history.
Rating:
Summary: Bill Clinton, with most of the warts
Review: Mr. Klein - Mr. Anonymous of ?Primary Colors? - has written an account of the Clinton presidency. Much of it is familiar, of course, because the history of it is so very recent. There are no stunning revelations, as Mr. Klein was a journalist and not a member of the president?s inner circle. Yet he gives us some very interesting perceptions. One of them is the very major, but almost hidden, role Hillary Clinton played in her husbands decisions. He shows us a president who could argue back and forth throughout the night, but then tenaciously stick with it once he made up his mind. Mr. Klein reminds us of the many achievements of this presidency that were never properly acknowledged because of the overriding preoccupation with Clinton?s personal scandals. And he also shows us how quickly George W. could mess up what took years to accomplish. While Clinton was battered from all sides (especially Newt Gingrich and Kenneth Starr), he did manage to take care of politics and help the more unfortunate of our citizen. Mr. Klein writes a reporter?s language. He presents us with a well researched book that tries to put a more favorable light on Bill Clinton?s presidency. He has done a noteworthy job.
Rating:
Summary: The Natural?
Review: Klein titles his book "The Natural", and subtitles it "the misunderstood presidency of Bill Clinton", and then fails to show either why Clinton is "the Natural", or why he is misunderstood. There is really nothing new here- we already know these stories. This book is not a biography, but neither is it "...the first draft of history..." as one of the backnotes would suggest. It is a breezy read, rather like a magazine article than a serious treatment of the man or his presidency. There are no footnotes and far too many ".....during one of our many conversations, so and so and such and such...." We find out how close Klein was to Clinton, and how they had many deep policy discussions. Klein also attempts to provide depth to his book by often using words one could only hear at a Georgetown dinner party: "bathetic", "peroration", and "poseurs", all in one 3 page stretch, just to name a few. Klein does talk a great deal about Clinton's failings and to his credit pulls no punches. But this leads to the biggest problem with this book, and to the reason so many people will read it. Klein gives us the "what", we want to know the "why"?
Reading this reminded me of the controversy over Morris' "Dutch" about Ronald Reagan. Morris thought there was no intellect or personality to Reagan, to the point of inventing fictional narrators of his book. A man who lived his simple political convictions was not enough, in Morris' mind, to sell a book. Klein on the other hand, has ultimately written a book much like Clinton's presidency- full of potential at the beginning, but with no real sense of direction, no core. Clinton didn't know what he wanted to do once he got to the presidency, so he tried to do everything and took both sides of every issue, finally leaving no legacy at all; Klein seems not to have known what point he wanted to make when he sat down to write this book, and he ends up at the same time accusing and defending Clinton and not really sifting history at all. He wants us to think he is being even-handed in his analysis, but is unwilling to truly criticize a Clinton policy (not behavior) without explaining away why Clinton wasn't really at fault. Klein loses credibility when he attributes Clinton's disastrous handling of the gays in the military issue to.... him not taking a vacation?
Rating:
Summary: terrific if a little slight
Review: Joe Klein is a terrific writer. And this book is excellent overview of the Clinton years. It's a balanced portrait of Clinton's successes as weighed against his many failures. But what makes this book a remarkable achievement is how insightful a political analyst Klein is. Klein is able to capture through reasoned analysis a portait of Clinton that is more than conjecture. And in the in end, what Klein is able to extrapolate about the Clinton presidency is that Clinton was so successful because he was not restricted by the narrow confines of ideology. Clinton was a an orignal thinker, comfortable in the company of his Republican adversaries becuase he didn't dismiss them or their concerns out of hand. He relished the role of political negotiation. Much to their dismay, the conservative the right (as opposed to the moderate right) had to take objection to Clinton's person because they didn't have a legitimate political case to oppose him on principal. As a result they attacked his character. Unfortunately for Clinton, his character was an easy target becuase he was a man prone to indulging his appetites. To be sure, however, Klein doesn't think that Clinton was a President who didn't make political mistakes. Clearly he did. Some of them, were even egregious offenses, notbaly the pardon of Marc Rich. For all that though, Clinton succeeded becuase he was not an ideaolgue. He was a thinker. And as such, he was free to change his mind.
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