The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton

by Joe Klein

Joe Klein, best-selling author of Primary Colors and one of our most brilliant political analysts, now tackles the subject he knows Bill Clinton. Astute, even-handed, and keenly intelligent, The Natural is the only book to read if you want to understand exactly what happened–to the military, to the economy, to the American people, to the country–during Bill Clinton’s presidency, and how the decisions made during his tenure affect all of us today.

Much has been written about Clinton, but The Natural is the first work to cut through the gossip, scandals, media hype, and emotional turbulence that Clinton always engendered, to step back and rationally analyze the eight years of his tenure, a period during which America rose to unprecedented levels of prosperity. Joe Klein puts that record into perspective, showing us what worked and what didn’t, exactly what was accomplished and why, and who was responsible for the successes and the failures.

We see how the Clinton White House functioned on the inside, how it dealt with the maneuvers of Congress and the Gingrich revolution, and who held power and made the decisions during the endless crises that beset the administration. Klein’s access to the White House over the years as a journalist gave him a prime spot from which to view every crucial event–both political and personal–and he sets them forth in an insightful, readable, and completely engrossing manner.

The Natural is stern in its criticism and convincing with its praise. It will cause endless debate amongst friends and foes of the Clinton administration. It is a book that anyone interested in contemporary politics, in American history, or in the functioning of our democracy, should read.

Genres: Politics, History, Biography, Nonfiction, Presidents, Biography Memoir, Us Presidents

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Joe Klein is a longtime Washington, D.C. and New York journalist and columnist, known for his novel Primary Colors, an anonymously written roman à clef portraying Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign. Klein is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Since 2003 he has been a contributor at the current affairs Time news group. In April 2006, he published Politics Lost, a book on what he calls the "pollster-consultant industrial complex". He has also written articles and book reviews for The New Republic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, LIFE and Rolling Stone.

Reviews

[Mara · Rating 2 out of 5]

When this book came out in 2003, Joe Klein (aka "anonymous" when it came to his better-known oeuvre, Primary Colors ) had the benefit of hindsight re. the Clinton presidency. However, if Klein's 2003 hindsight was 20/20, then sitting here in 2014 I felt like I had the visual acuity of a hawk that's been bred with an eagle...to produce some kind of eagle-eyed superhawk (thanks Agent Hawley!).

Part of what I found so impressive about Peter Baker's Days of Fire when it came to the Bush 43 presidency, was a sense that it would hold up as an account of events for posterity's sake. Maybe that wasn't Klein's goal here, in which case, my bad- but I'll gripe nonetheless.



Due to my own Clinton-charmed biases, I was pleased to find myself annoyed (a seemingly oxymoronic state) by Klein's glib characterizations of politicians on the other side of the aisle (and the Atlantic, as it were). He introduces Bush 43 as "a former cheerleader" and Tony Blair as "a former rock group promoter" in his sweeping statements about the political landscape at the end of the Clinton years. Meanwhile he depicts Clinton in the backroom granting pardons with "libidinous" fervor- likening it to the Lewinsky scandal.

This book simply felt irrelevant in this day and age. Klein makes it seem as if the "rapid response" to media scandals and increased attention to public opinion were products of, well, Clinton. Given today's 24-hour news cycle and regular pol use of social media, his take just seems naive. Likewise Klein's assessment of the public as being "charisma fatigued" and in search of more erudite leadership seemed like a distinctly pre-2004 election stance.

All in all, I felt like this was just a big swing and a miss.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Klein's retrospective look at the Clinton administration (published in 2002) borrows the title of Bernard Malamud's novel, The Natural, about a gifted baseball player, so let's stay with the baseball metaphor a moment.

By Klein's account, Bill Clinton played "small ball," which is to say he hit singles, stole bases, hit more singles, finally scored, and then did it over again as he outlasted barrages of homers from more powerful adversaries.

This is a fine, close-in study. It is well-written and draws on personal encounters and insight as well as the larger, well-known contours of Clinton's up and down presidency.

Entering office with large aspirations, Clinton and his wife failed at health care reform through arrogance, secrecy, and wonkiness. But Clinton succeeded with NAFTA (about which I have some questions, and I was present at the creation under the first Bush), welfare reform, Americorps, balancing the budget, and inventions like the egregiously named earned income tax credit, which was meant to help low-income workers, and did, without alerting the nation to the fact that it was a tax break

The Clinton administration was conducted at a time of peace and prosperity. America was #1 again. We were, in Madeleine Albright's stupid phrasing, the indispensable nation, but the challenges abroad were not great, and the challenges at home were opposed ferociously by the Gingrich-led Republican party.

Ultimately Gingrich self-destructed. Clinton tried to follow him with Monica Lewinsky, but the "Comeback Kid" survived impeachment.

We more or less know all this. We know Clinton was a creature of private desires and appetites.

The arresting aspects of this book go back to the "small ball" theme. Clinton accomplished a lot. He balanced the budget and audaciously targeting the surplus on "Save Social Security First," a state of the union phrase that represented, in itself, a way of thwarting Republicans from taking a trillion out of the public coffers and redistributing it to the wealthy.

Clever move. Meaningful move. Clinton flew under the radar a lot, believe it or not, and Klein portrays an administration that became increasingly more disciplined as it matured (to the point that Clinton, apparently, could not stand his success and unzipped his pants in the wrong place.) In so doing, he did not become a great leader. Having achieved much, he failed to make clear that the Republican opposition to redistribution is based on America already had redistributed wealth to the rich. He also failed to make clear that when Republicans howled against class warfare, they were the experts at it. And he was inattentive to the mess Hillary was making of health care reform or the progress of his unifying project, AmeriCorps.

Without saying so explicitly--and I don't know why--Klein clearly portrays Clinton as a man who hated to say no to anyone and would rather accommodate than aggravate. He was a fighter more with himself and his staff than with his adversaries. He was shrewd, unbelievably well-informed, and relatively indifferent to the world. The terror that we live with today was born during his times. It wasn't his fault, but he showed little leadership in dealing with it as he let the intelligence community shrink and the Pentagon shirk. Blackhawk Down in Somalia was a grim moment of retreat (not that we should have been there in the first place) and his waxing/waning enthusiasm for China's markets certainly made the Japanese wonder who our strategic partner was.

The portrait of Al Gore here is good: here was a man who did not really want to be president as much as he could demonstrate his ability to boot away an election by himself.

The phenomenon of the politics of personal destruction is recounted as a decades-long polarization that was effective, and nauseating. The Republicans planned Clinton's downfall from day one. They did the same thing with Obama, a different man in different times, from day one. Both presidents inherited economies that were faltering or plummeting and turned them around. It makes you wonder how they could get a single vote in 2016.

This brings us to Hillary, Clinton's wife and soulmate and sparring partner. Presumably she'll be the Democratic nominee in 2016 and the odds are she will win. Does that mean she will repeat Clinton's presidency? It's really not a sound question. Hillary learned a lot from her husband's travails in The White House, as a senator, and as secretary of state. She was, to begin with, much more disciplined and focused than her husband and remains so. She lacks his "touch," which is what Klein finds "natural" about Bill Clinton the politician, but I have spent time with both of them, and I can tell you they both have an electric effect on people, even if Hillary is an introvert and Bill is an extravert.

Klein's book ends well before the second and third and possibly fourth phases of Hillary's career presented themselves. His assessment focuses on Bill, not Hillary. He finds Bill to be more accomplished than people think and just as defective and disappointing as they think. He is a man to be measured against his astonishing strengths and resiliency and his equally astonishing weaknesses and demons. Did he have the "stuff" to really lead the nation? He would like to think so, and I suspect Klein thinks so, but the 90s were a political food fight, a disgrace on both parties, and a period of post-Cold War consolidation with which we still have yet to come to terms. An Eisenhower or Truman might have tamed the decade with security about who they were. As Lloyd Bentsen is quoted, the WWII generation might not have felt it had so much to prove. Bill Clinton was insecure, and he sailed again and again into trouble before tacking out toward calmer waters.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not enough perspective of time or scholarship in this book to call it a work of history, but it does successfully aspire to be a bit more than journalism. It's a mostly admiring portrait of President Clinton. Mr. Klein identifies and correctly praises some of President Clinton's accomplishments - balancing the budget, welfare reform, Americorps and improving the discourse on race relations. He also correctly criticizes Mr. Clinton for his personal failings - not just his inability to control his sexual appetite, but also some of his less than adroit handling of the Lewinsky matter and his tendency to fall in with bad people.

I thought that the characterization of the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton was probably right. It's just very complex -- at the same time warmly loving and coldly professional. Honest and understanding, but also dishonest and deceptive. But they have stuck together for a long time so something must be working for both of them.

I also enjoyed his idea that it is very hard for a president to forge a lasting legacy in the form of a centrist "third way" because often the work is either undone by a successor or credited to a predecessor.

[Moira]

I actually remember reading Primary Colours when it first came out anonymously, and the big flap about figuring out who the author was, &c &c. I didn't realize Klein was this....conservative.

[Maxo Marc]

I'm not gay but I love some Bill Clinton.

[Charles Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review appeared in the San Jose Mercury News in 2002:

More than one person has told me of their encounters with Bill Clinton: the sense of some enormous presence arriving in the room, like a sudden change in the weather. To some degree, perhaps, the aura was cast by the office, though few report being similarly galvanized by the presence of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter. It's no wonder Clinton was so adored by Hollywood: He had unsurpassed star power, and it enabled him to survive the most sordid personal exposure ever experienced by a U.S. president. Yet if Bill Clinton's story had been invented by Hollywood, it would have been laughed out of theaters as the most implausible of fictions.

Historians, social scientists, psychologists and journalists will be writing books about Clinton for years to come, as the passage of time and changes in the country and the world alter our perspective on his presidency. Was he a failure or a success or something in between? For now, we'll have to content ourselves with the shrewd, informed analysis of long-term Clinton watchers such as Joe Klein, who has summed up his impressions of the Clinton years smartly and concisely in ''The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton.''
I'm not sure Klein ever really delivers on the ''misunderstood'' part, however. What almost everyone except the most rabid Clinton-haters understands is that Clinton was a living paradox: The intelligence, knowledge and insight of the noted ''policy wonk'' were undermined by crudeness, self-indulgence and indecision. Nothing about the man is easily reducible to a phrase, least of all, Klein observes, his relationship with his wife:
''Over time, I decided that the wisest course regarding the Clinton marriage was to be indiscriminately credulous, to believe all the stories: He was chronically unfaithful. They fought like harpies. They were political partners. They were best friends. They loved each other madly, in every sense of the word. None of these were mutually exclusive. . . . Which is not to say that it wasn't a stupefyingly weird relationship.''
Klein covered the Clintons, starting with the first presidential campaign, for such publications as Newsweek, New York and the New Yorker. And that first campaign led to his roman a clef, ''Primary Colors,'' about behind-the-scenes maneuvers in the quest of one Jack Stanton for the nomination. The novel, published in 1996 and credited to ''Anonymous,'' caused Klein some professional embarrassment when he was forced to admit -- after several denials -- that he was the author. (Perhaps the experience gave him a bit of empathy with Clinton's attempt to deny the relationship with Monica Lewinsky.)
As a political satire, ''Primary Colors'' was surprisingly warm-hearted (''I saw it as a defense of larger-than-life politicians,'' Klein says) -- or perhaps not so surprisingly: Klein demonstrated an acute sympathetic imagination in his earlier books, ''Woody Guthrie: A Life'' and ''Payback: Five Marines After Vietnam,'' in which his subjects come movingly to life.
Similarly, as a political reporter Klein has shown an ability to see what makes pols tick. Other reporters are much better at prognostications and political analysis -- ''The Natural'' is weakest when Klein attempts to sum up the concrete achievements of the Clinton administration -- but Klein can give you a sense of the human beings at work.
He's particularly good at quick-hit descriptions. Al Gore, for example, ''had a genius for subservience (and also, unfortunately, the submerged, constricted anger that often accompanies such passivity).'' Klein says of Ralph Nader that his ''personal asceticism and low-key style masked a sour and unrelenting demagogue.'' And Hillary Clinton's staff ''suffered from Tippi Hedren Syndrome: They looked as if they were about to be attacked by birds.''
Clinton's gift was an ability to overcome crisis -- unfortunately, many of the crises he faced were of his own making. The drifting, indecisive first term, with its disastrous bungling of health-care reform, led to the Republican triumphs in the election of 1996. This proved to be the challenge Clinton needed, Klein says: The ''battle against a rigid American mullah named Newt Gingrich would consume the next several years. It would prove successful; indeed, it will probably stand as a textbook example of how a tactically astute President can transform a position of weakness into strength.''
Klein gives Clinton credit for free trade, welfare reform, deficit reduction and for the less-publicized college tax credit program, children's health program and AmeriCorps, as well as for an un-Clintonian ''triumph of persistence, not charisma.'' Whether all of these were worthy achievements, and whether Clinton deserves the credit for them, will continue to be debated. Klein asserts that they ''dramatically improved the lives of millions of the poorest, hardest-working Americans.'' And that they have been ''ignored by Clinton's critics on the left (who wanted bigger social programs), on the right (who wanted less spending), in the press (who mostly didn't notice), and in academia.''
And the Lewinsky mess further obscured Clinton's incremental, unglamorous achievements: ''Incrementalism was too subtle a story for the all-news cable networks and the front pages. There was a news vacuum to be filled. In 1998, it would be.'' The distasteful saga will probably always define the Clinton presidency, but Klein struggles to keep it in perspective -- in some respects, he's more disgusted by the Marc Rich pardon than by the scandal that led to Clinton's impeachment. But in the end, Klein feels betrayed and at a loss for words -- ''Even the most sympathetic observer is left spluttering,'' he says -- at Clinton's conduct. For even if it wasn't unique in presidential behavior, for once the curtains were left open:
''One imagines that other leaders -- many of those who are remembered as great and caring like Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy -- were as selfish and needy and self-destructively strange as Bill Clinton proved himself to be. The will to power assumes a certain fanaticism, particularly in a democracy. But the public had been spared the squalor in the past.''
This is a provocative little book, filled with insights, that's like a pencil sketch for a portrait that needs to be done in full color on an epic canvas. Still, I didn't come away from Klein's book feeling that I understood Clinton better. Maybe I'm not ready for that yet: As the saying goes, ''to understand all is to pardon all,'' and there are some things I'm not yet ready to pardon.

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well written and enlightening, to a point, about the Clinton administration, marriage and key successes/failures. It's probably a good place to start. Two problems. While candid about what he perceives as shortcomings/failures, he essentially gives Clinton a pass for those failures. I think most people in America would agree with him and give Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson the same pass. Interesting, that he consistently is unwilling to accord the same pass to Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush Sr and Jr. Which is where the second problem is for me - how truly candid are these revelations if there isn't an equally 'candid' assessment of the other side of the coin? And finally, I had a friend who drove the Presidential helicopter during part of the Clinton tenure - Bill comes off well in the day to day with the worker bees. Hillary, not so much. You won't find that sort of depth in this work.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have never read anything about Bill Clinton I suspect you will rate this book much higher. For me, I had already learned a fair amount and I learned much of the topics covered in this book in the author's other book called politics lost. It is a nice short book covering Clinton. Reading it almost 20 years later especially given what happened with his wife, you learn a lot about Hillary Clinton that gives some foreshadowing to her tribulations and some insight into why she had such a hard time on the national stage.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Natural was penned by Joe Klein in 2002, so it is a bit dated and does not enjoy the advantage of time's passage to smooth out the attendant historical ruffles tied to Clinton's performance as president.

While I don't think Joe Klein took liberties in marshaling the facts to explain President Clinton's motivations, I do sense that he has a grudging, disappointed admiration of a man whom he describes as a characterization of the boomer generation. Klein's conclusions really gained traction - at least for me - because the more salacious improprieties forever tied to Bill Clinton eventually manifested themselves in some of his most vocal detracters as well.

As such, no irony is wasted when taken in by the view afforded from the passage of time; we are in fact doomed to repeat mistakes of the past when we do not pay attention to the late philosopher George Santayana's prescient, albeit cliched aphorism. How unfortunate that the 'raze-and-burn' politics first advanced by Clinton's arch-rival, Newt Gingrich remains in vogue.

I suppose what causes me so much distress is that we, of the baby boomer generation who had it so good, were never sufficiently tested by life's trials and tribulations. And, lest I be accused of painting my generation with such a broad brush, I can only argue that history will not be kind to us because collectively, politicians our generation and, indeed our community leaders seem to reflect that disturbing quality of looking out for number one at all levels of society.

I work at a school where our school's founder, and now ex-director battles with federal allegations of fiscal improprieties that took place during his 13 year tenure/association with the schools he founded. Obviously, his story must be vetted by the legal authorities, and he should remain innocent until proven guilty.

Unfortunately, we members of that community remain in a state of limbo while the investigative process slowly inches along. Regardless, troubling revelations continue to emerge and the chauvinistic mentality that existed as the school's standard operating procedure - a modus operandi that got us into this predicament - seems an accurate reflection of Joe Klein's picture of the Clinton-Gingrich weltanschauung born in the nineties.

Because of that, The Natural only serves as a cautionary tale for those who now stand at the helm. Aside from the prognostications and observations made by Klein at a few points in the book regarding America's future, it seems to me that Klein got it right in his retrograde analysis of the Bill Clinton's presidency. I must say however, my conclusions regarding my generation weren't really changed after reading The Natural, No, my jaded conclusions were only reinforced.

Considering the name of Klein's book was borrowed from a Robert Redford movie, I will take the liberty of borrowing Marlon Brando's line from On The Waterfront; "I could have been a contender" - apropos of a Baby Boomer I'd say, using movies lines to explain our world view, substituting "we" for "I". Plainly put, we were given the opportunity to be great, to do something of significance, but we took the easy way out. We lost sight of the bigger picture because we got mired in the petty process of looking for something to prove.

Nowadays, I don't seem to find anyone particular party that reflects who I am as a person; I believe in social justice and fiscal responsibility. However both animals are represented by to vastly different camps, and my choice in political leadership is threatened by reaching for either choice - so much so that politics of the Republican variety offend my sensibilities as a Human Being and Democrat-styled politics amounts to apologizing for having a heart.

I hate being so cynical, but reading a book like this helps me as I seek to understand why a nation, 'so conceived and so dedicated' could backslide to such a marginalized state where we wage war from a distance and yet scrutinize one another in search of chinks in political armor.

So,pursuit of happiness has given way to something less pure; relentless pursuit of the tawdry which has become the preferred mode of impugning someone's character.

We cover the strumpet of bigotry in the language of economy. We invoke fear. We drape it in the American flag and pass off as patriotism or worse yet, family values. The consequence is that we have abandoned the art of compromise, and remain crippled as fellow citizens have openly declared war on the nation now pride themselves in thwarting the legislative process because they know the constitution well enough to destroy it if they cannot get their way.

In short, what America is suffering from today is that we have our own constitutional suicide bombers, and we refuse to even see it.

I agree with the Spanish Civil War nationalist General, Emilio Mola who predicted Spain's demise would come when he answered the query about which of the four columns besieging Madrid would claim ultimate victory for the Fascists. He said it would be the "Fifth Column" - the supporters located within the city itself. America's biggest threat does not come from outside her borders, it comes from her own children.

[Lisibo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son lent me this book as he thought I’d find it interesting and I did. It took me back to the 90s and filled in details of events that I recall, and gave me an idea of what was going on behind the scenes. Most of all, it gave an insight into the way the Clintons worked. Very interesting and not my usual type of book!

[Fred Kohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to find a good biography of Bill Clinton so I was happy to run across this book. Unfortunately as biography it is not great. It read more like a memoir of the author's encounters with Bill Clinton and other politicians as a by product of his work as a journalist. If you approach the book from this angle, it's pretty good, although I do think he was rough on Clinton occasionally.

[Michael R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong. Limped into the finish

[Edward Maroncha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Well researched, well written.

[Noah Goats · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an okay sketch of Clinton and his presidency, but it’s a meandering and unfocused sort of book.

[Norm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always enjoyed Joe Klein's columns in Time. This book is just as well written

[morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a lot more than Primary Colors. Klein's better at writing non fiction.

[Linda Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodread

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was informative/fun to re-visit the Clinton presidency years with a bit of historical perspective and time since 2000

This was a short, well written and engaging retrospective of the perceived Clinton successes (his Third Way of triangulation, Bosnian intervention and peace brokering, earned income tax credits, balanced budgets, reduced crime, welfare reform) and failures (Somalia, Haiti, impeachment, government shut down, constant partisanship (admittedly not entirely his fault), health care, coming terrorist age, whitewater proceedings).

I enjoyed the brief historical lessons on the evolving of hyper partisanship with gingrich receiving a large part of the scorn from Klein here, and through the bork hearings, jim wright resigning, Clarence Thomas, Jim Tower, etc.

I’m not sure this really changed my opinion of clinton’s presidency, and this book definitely isn’t the place to start for someone looking for a hugely researched tutorial/historical summary, yet I enjoyed it’s snappy, quick style and insider look…

I’d also be interested to see a book or argument on the effects of clinton’s economic policy with respect to bank deregulation and the attendant cause/effect on the 2008 financial collapse

[Gary Schantz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed in so much as it covered Clinton's time in the White House. I found the stories interesting and informative.

But that where it stop being an enjoyable read was when the author seemed to be trying to hard to prove the he knew every word in the English language and went way out of his way to make that point.

In any book I have read there are always a few words I have to look up because I am not sure what the author is actually try to say or I simply do not know the word. However in this book, it was exhausting trying to get past some of the most important parts of the book because I was getting tired of having to refer to a dictionary or thesaurus to get the gist of why the author chose a particular adjective (obscure adjective at times) when a much simpler word have made the same point.

After awhile I began to skip over those unnecessary adjectives because they really didn't affect the point being made beyond going for overkill when the simpler word would have sufficed. This is definitely the work of someone who has majored in thesaurus to make an impression upon his fellow journalists. And if the elitist group of well-educated audience was what he was shooting for then he accomplished his goal.

[Punk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non-fiction. Bill Clinton's rise and fall. This is as much a love story as it is a Dear John letter, Joe Klein vacillating between moony and bitter like a high school ex-boyfriend. It's uncomfortable, but even worse, it's uneven and rushed. Klein takes a lot for granted. To start with, he never introduces himself, which is a problem because the book is as much about Klein as it is Clinton. Even more annoying, Klein never identifies in what capacity he spent all this time with Clinton, nor where he got all his information, and I'm not talking about confidential sources, I'm talking about all the times he writes "Clinton once told me..." This is a fairly spasmodic account of Clinton's candidacy and administration, written in a supposedly casual, yet ostentatious tone, that doesn't go into enough detail, though often digresses into unnecessary specifics.

If you're already familiar with Clinton's presidency, then this isn't going to teach you anything new, and if you aren't familiar with it, then it's not going to teach you much at all. Do yourself a favor and read Primary Colors instead.

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read for any interested in what exactly GOT done, policy wise, and what DIDN'T during Clinton's cacophonous presidency. Moreover, Klein provides explanations as to WHY these successes and failures took place. The book's description on amazon.com, says that first attempt history accounts aren't usually as well done as this one is. I can't speak to the historical validity of that statement but i can certainly vouch for its qualitative assurance; I really have to say---and this is from someone who teaches students to recognize bias and balance---Klein is REALLY even handed. He explores both the TREMENDOUS sense of (and reality of) lost opportunities (health care, Medicare, terrorism), as well as some terrific successes that we still benefit from today.

The last few chapters made me a little melancholy actually----for that pre 9/11 affluent and seemingly innocent time (my college years), for the tricks that fate plays (maybe the wrong man for the wrong time, one wonders what would have happened if he'd been president when W was), and for the faults and errors that the Clintons represent that are illustrative of the human condition.

An amazing political read.

[Faith Justice · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the book jacket:

"Much has been written about Clinton, but The Natural is the first work to cut through the gossip, scandals, media hype, and emotional turbulence that Clinton always engendered, to step back and rationally analyze the eight years of his tenure, a period during which America rose to unprecedented levels of prosperity. Joe Klein puts that record into perspective, showing us what worked and what didn't, exactly what was accomplished and why, and who was responsible for the successes and the failures."

My review

This was a quick (just over 200 pages) and fascinating read about a deeply flawed but brilliant president. Klein does a good job of putting Clinton in the context of the political times. I was particularly interested in the Clinton marriage and Hilliary's influence and skills since she's running for President. I went from ambivalent to impressed and encouraged. I think the Clintons have been through the mill and know the territory. They've made the mistakes and should know how to avoid them this time around.

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A political reporter's discussion of the presidency of Bill Clinton. He takes us through the election campaign, Gennifer Flowers, gays in the military, the 1993 budget agreement, the 1994 election debacle,the Oklahoma City bombing, the government shutdown by Newt Gingrich, the 1996 campaign, Monica Lewinsky, Ken Starr and impeachment, Gingrich's downfall in 1998 and the runup to the '2000 campaign and Al Gore. The author discusses Clinton's personality and policy accomplishments. The book seems to give a good, relatively objective assessment of Clinton as President. He was a gifted politician with a good heart and good policy intentions. His policies, totally unsupported by republicans, led to much of the prosperity of the '90's. He was also flawed in being unable to control his worst impulses, in some ways a wasted opportunity.

[Brian Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this incisive and revelatory book, Joe Klein takes us inside the Clinton White House and exposes the reason for Clinton's flaws and reexamines some of the hidden successes of his Presidency. Rather than rehash the typical line on Clinton, Klein is honest about the flaws and the reasoning for those flaws psychologically as well as being honest about what made this Presidency tick. Ultimately, history will most likely judge Clinton as a more or less successful presidency because of the vast expansion of the economy while acknowledging the contentiousness of inter-party politics between the White House and the Congress. Brief, eloquently written, and vital towards an understanding of this continually most relevant of presidencies.

[Monte Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives the good and bad on Bill Clinton, his presidency, and his legacy. In so many ways Clinton was an enigma, but he did get so many things done politically inspite of all the nonsense that he created personally. What the man was, was a most astute politican who through perseverance accomplished many things, often incrementally and under the radar. I thought the author did a good job on a sidebar of Newt Gingrich and how he grew to lead the GOP and then self-destructed. Joe Klein is a good political writer and this is a good book.

[S Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most political biographies can be classified as written by unloving critics or by uncritical lovers. Joe Klein has found the middle ground. His assessment of the Clinton presidency is unsparing in its criticism but also appreciative of the virtues and victories. Klein provides context for both the successes and the failures. Not a comprehensive history of the Clinton years, the book is an easy to read – and rather brief – summary of an administration marked by controversy, disappointment and overlooked achievements.

[Ainsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Dean's Book choice. Klein is absurdly self-righteous. I found it difficult to take him seriously, since he seems to view the entire Clinton presidency through the lens of his failure to live up to the expectations of the New Democrats, of which Klein is one. He does have some interesting insight into Clinton's personality and charisma, so that was something.

Also, he loses points with me because he was such a gigantic tool when I met him.

[Gordon Kwok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Klein writes an interesting book on the Clinton presidency. He discusses the natural talent that President Clinton had for politics with his intellect, empathy and charisma...he was essentially a generational political talent and the top politician of his generation. In the end, it seems that Mr. Klein expressed almost a sense of sadness that President Clinton did not achieve more given this immense talent. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in politics.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good introduction to Bill Clinton's "Third Way" in American politics. Klein's excessively partisan in his assessments of other politicians around Clinton (Newt Gingrich, for example), but his retelling of the story of Clinton's presidency is helpful.

[Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick overview of clinton as a person and his administration. fairly unbiased, as it recognizes his faults, but appreciates his strengths. easy to read, because its written with anecdotes, and doesn't go too in depth into the issues.