Bill Clinton’s autobiography, My Life, is about to hit the stands. I heard a story on it on All Things Considered this afternoon, and the reporter commented that all this hooplah “is like the Beatles were getting back together.” One bookstore expected ten thousand people to show up for the book-signing. Why? I voted for Clinton twice, I thought he was a good president with a tragic flaw, and unfairly persecuted, but I don’t want to read his autobiography. It’s all history, he can never be president again, and I’m sure there are better, more impartial sources I can read if I want to study the Clinton years. What’s the big deal?
He writes about sex. Sex always sells.
Is that stuff actually in the book?
If I wanted Bill/Monica whacking material, I would just read the Starr Report.
How often do you get to meet a President of the United States? I’d drive 10 miles to poke Ford with a stick (or whatever people would want to see Ford for. But you get the idea).
Same reason we had the whole to-do last week with Reagan’s death – he was POTUS, he was fairly popular with a number of folks, and he has (or had) charisma oozing all over the place.
One possible additional factor might be that some folks see Clinton as an underdog, hounded by Ken Starr and the right-wing nutjobs for most of his Presidency, and are supporting him as a result. Our nation loves underdogs…
Well, like him or not, the man oozes charisma and is likable as all hell. I know that I’ll do my damnedest to see him when he comes near here. And I’ll buy his book.
Only way I’d buy his book is if there is a chapter on f*ing Rwanda.
But will you read it?
Lots of other reasons. First, I hear it’s a well written book. Second, it’s being promoted to death, since there were 1.5 million copies printed. Third, presidential books always sell well. Fourth, it’s an election season, and everyone’s thinking about politics. And last, there’s the prurient interest. People want the dirty details on the Monica affair, and apparently there are some in the book (not graphic, just descriptions of where and when and what happened after.
And, Clinton is promoting the book, and presidents who are willing to appear for interviews have to beat the offers away with a stick.
There very well might be. He came here to speak a while back and spoke at some length about his regrets there.
Fantastic speaker, that man.
Yeah. Probably not in one sitting, you understand. But I’ll probably get around to finishing it by close of 2005.
Or so.
Isn’t close to 1000 pages, or somesuch? Okay, early to mid 2006. ish.
Or so.
I’ve heard him say his regrets… but if there is a chapter explaining what his process was, what was holding him back, then I would buy the book just for that. Otherwise, not giving him a cent.
Does it have to have the chapter title of “How I sucked at Rwanda” too?
First of all, BC was an extremely popular president. He was even more popular than Reagan, although you wouldn’t know it from watching the tbe last week .
Secondly, the sex scandal is going to provoke a certain curiosity. The subject has been beaten to death, yes, but BC himself has never publicly explained his own mental processes regarding that. In short, people want to know what the hell he was thinking.
Thirdly, he has a brilliant political mind and could provide insights and analyses of events which would be of a higher than average quality for a political memoir.
Fourth, he has a unusually good ability express himself in an accessible manner. He does not talk down to people yet he does not get lost in his own erudition either. Those who have had early peeks at the book (including Dan Rather) have said that the book is extremely well written and readable, particularly (and maybe surprisingly, given what people are likely to look for) in the first half of the book which describes his ubpbringing and life before the presidency. If the book truly has quality as a book, as a piece of good writing, then that can only help anticipation that it might have legs as a best seller beyond the gossipy excerpts.
Personally, I am interested because BC is a guy who has not really revealed much of himself before. He’s a person who I think it would be fascinating to have a long dinner with. That’s the sort of experience I’m hoping to get from this book.
Excuse me,Diogenes, but why do you feel that Clinton was such a brilliant guy? He faced no big issues as president (a fact which he continually laments-this deprived him ofhis chance for “greatness”). He managed to lose both houses of Congress in 1994…so a skilled politician he wern’t.
I just don’t see why the guy was anything more than a standard, run-of-the-millpolitician…likeable perhaps, but nothing out of the ordinary. 
OUCH! Book got a terrible review in the very, very influential New York Times Book Review.
I like Michiko Kakutani’s columns, but I’m not sure of her political leanings. She doesn’t seem to like the book on style alone, though: “The book, which weighs in at more than 950 pages, is sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull ? the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history.”
It’ll sell a zillion copies anyway. Me, I didn’t like Clinton the man much–I think he deserved to be impeached–but as a Dem I was glad he was not removed. I’ll borrow it from someone.
I wonder if any US media outlet will pick this up.
Clinton rages against Dimbleby in Panorama confrontation over Lewinsky
Why should they? Is it somehow newsworthy that some TV weasel tried to bait him in an interview?
Asking BC if his contrition is sincere is about as pointless and as deliberately antognistic a question as could be imagined. Clinton should have physically kicked the shit out the guy right there on camera.
re: sex scandal.
people may want to what he was thinking… most already know what he was thinking with.