Rating: 
Summary: 800 Pages and Not One Word of Wisdom
Review: Every time I think someone is going to give an honest evaluation of the Clinton Administration, you get a book like 'The Clinton Wars'. Clinton must have something on Mr. Blumental because I wouldn't make career lying for a friend who made a habit of lying to me. This book is not a book worth buying. It's not even worth wasting the gas or time to go to the library. Please end the Clinton rehab tour, no one is buying tickets to the show. It's like revisiting Nixon all over again.
Rating:
Summary: Why?
Review: Why would ANYone value ANYthing MR. Blumethal has to say? He has been discredited so many times, I'm surprised he got published. Somebody said he was a journalist? Maybe in the eyes of those like Mr. Blair at the NY Times, but not to anyone with a brain.The book reads like one big apology and excuse. Bottom line is if you like Clinton, you'll like the book. What a read!
Rating:
Summary: responce to the liberal slander
Review: Let me hear this did i get this right "right wingers read junk like ann coulter or sean hannity we democrats read smart stuff like blumingthale"...my god what is wrong with you so it is obviosly junk if it does not agree with your liberal opinion huh. The fact is mrs. coulter and mr. hannity despite whether you agree with them or not have alot more credibility and have not been caught in the lie that mr. bluminthale has. All he is is one of clintons stooges who is trying to rewrite history for and expose the right wing conspiracy. Sometimes you people sould just really sad when you are talking about the right wing conspiracy because nobody buys it most people admit there is a liberal bias and if anything there is more of a liberal conspiracy then a right wing one. The fact though is if the kind of people who read this book say smart comment about hannity and coulter being garbage just because they dont believe them well i think that shows alot of the kind of people who would read this book. If you are a liberal then by all means read this book and you can feel good about the terrible conservatives, if you are a conservative you should probaly not read this. All i ask is not for some people to be so imature is to call people ... practicaly just because they read other material then them, that is facism and hypocracy at its worst, its appropiate i find it on this book review.....
Rating: 
Summary: All Democratic presidential candidates should read this book
Review: All Democratic presidential candidates should read this book and learn from it. Clinton was amazingly resilient in the face of opponents who tried to destroy him from day one and a prosecutor who became a mad dog barking up any tree to try to bring him down. Blumenthal underscores how you have to separate a president's personal life from his presidential performance. Not one of our former presidents could have stood up to this kind of sustained ugliness lit by the right wing and sustained by the media.
Rating: 
Summary: Shark bait Clinton
Review: I'm sorry, but as a person who voted for Bill Clinton, I lived to regret it. Blumenthal does little to explain away Clinton's atrocious private behaviour. Couldn't the man at least keep it to one mistress per year while he was president? He was a superb leader but a real jerk when it came to women. In the end, his private life cascaded over into his public life with predictable results. Don't you get it, Blumenthal? The sharks are always circling the White House no matter who is installed. Why throw them easy bait? As far as the writing itself is concerned, I liked it. It is brisk and easy to digest, a nice weekend book for the beach. Just don't expect it to exonerate Big Bill.
Rating:
Summary: The Simple Truth, Beautifully Told
Review: The American press corps has a lot to answer for, after being led around by the nose for several years by Ken Starr, much to the detriment of a fine presidency and of one of the most capable national leaders ever to occupy the White House. Some journalists were being more than led, of course: they were in active collaboration with Starr in an intense campaign to use sexual activity -- which never should have been anyone's business -- to unseat a strong Democratic president. Only a few journalists saw and wrote the truth about these sham scandals. Sidney Blumenthal's book details the sordid saga in calm and eloquent prose -- weaving a fascintating tale in which important national policies and policy issues were obscured by a torrent of mud. Those who can't stand the truth will accuse Blumenthal of simply trying to settle scores. He's doing much more -- telling us what actually happened, and warning us of the degradation that has occurred in our national political process and in the 4th Estate that is supposed to be a critical part of our constitutional system. For his accuracy and steadfast courage, Blumenthal deserves to be seen as quiet hero -- in the best of American traditions.
Rating:
Summary: First Draft Of History.
Review: Blumenthal's book is a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of his years both inside and outside the Clinton administration. The book is thorough, vividly written and steady and has, obviously, already been assailed by the right wing punditocracy largely because Blumenthal actually admires Clinton and measures the man's very real achievements (while also being quite forthright about Clinton's missteps, particularly his incoherent first two years in office.) But Blumenthal has also ticked off another power nexus -- that of the mainstream media. Why? Because Blumenthal, a former reporter for The Washington Post and The New Yorker knows how the game was played, and he names names, providing an absolutley devastating analysis of how big media companies like The New York Times, The Post, Time, Newsweek, et al, were duped by dirty tricksters on the radical right; how the Whitewater story was concocted by Republican gamesters during the '92 election and how, after Clinton's election, those gamesters used Jeff Gerth at the supposedly 'liberal' NY Times to do their dirty work by foisting the story into the national mainstream. With results we know now. Attacks on Blumenthal, from Times' editors, Newsweek's Isikoff strike a false and shrill (and hugely defensive) note. Blumenthal has the goods on these characters. The smoke has cleared, and as they say "history will judge." Those media bigfeet who became so usefully available to the Republican propaganda machine do not like now to have their bad behavior brought back up. Thus, the tenor of reviews claiming the Clinton era is all 'ancient history' and we should let the past be past. ...
Rating:
Summary: Right wing lie machine partly exposed
Review: Great, thoughtful book - which guarantees it will get no reviews in the right wing media.
Right wingers read junk like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity. Smart people will read Blumenthal's book.
Blumenthal is a real journalist and a great writer. This is an outstanding account of his years in the White House, and he does not let Clinton slide, either.
Rating: 
Summary: Insight into Denial
Review: Let's face it, Blumenthal has less credibility than fabricator Jayson Blair (NY Times). He has been caught in so many lies and paid so much in civil penalties and legal bills that this book offers nothing in factual history. What makes this book somewhat worthy of your time is that Blumenthal was at the center of the most effective "personal destruction" machine in history. Ask how does a man guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice come out looking like both victim and hero while a federal judge looks downright evil? Clinton presided over the outright decline of the democratic party from city councils to the house of representatives and yet he managed to get every national democratic official to line up behind him even while they publicly admitted his guilt. A political machine this effective deserves to be studied, personal moral judgements aside. If you can get past his absolute denial of facts and hero worship of Bill Clinton, Blumenthal's writing is actually fun to read. There hopefully will be much more scholarly tracts into the Clinton presidency, but polmerics have their place.
Rating:
Summary: First of Many Attempts
Review: Still early to fully comprehend the dilemmas Clinton faced in the oval office as a result of partisan anxiety that erupted in the witch hunt that produced the impeachment side trip through which the media had a field day, and from which they've yet to recover, there is little doubt that sooner or later, it will become evident that despite those "complications," Clinton followed Kennedy's style and perhaps his agenda from the outset. The dichotomy and enigma that continues to frustrate authors, however, is the failure to identify the different perspectives the two had in terms of support, and in personality when attacked. Where Kennedy may have been strong enough to dismiss attempts to discredit him, Clinton was hard pressed to contain his resentment, so prominent beneath his reserved exterior. These reactions are typical of perfectionists with high hopes who appear to be arbitrarily submarined as he was in many cases, owing to his agenda of doubling his efforts to control the outcome, and emerge a winner. That should have been evident during his administration, especially from his demeanor at the one and only aggressive attack made public. Though many behind the scenes have reported upon these unsettling facets of his personality, people forget that the gander is never far from the goose. And the goose always lays golden eggs, if any. Clinton may turn out to be the most distinctive and unusual President the country has ever seen when all is said and done, in hindsight.
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