The Choice: How Bill Clinton Won

by Bob Woodward

The Choice is Bob Woodward's classic story of the quest for power, focusing on the 1996 presidential campaign as a case study of money, public opinion polling, attack advertising, handlers, consultants, and decision making in the midst of electoral uncertainty. President Bill Clinton is examined in full in the contest with Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the Republican presidential nominee. The intimacy and detail of Woodward's account of the candidates and their wives show the epic human struggle in this race for the White House.

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

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Robert "Bob" Upshur Woodward is an assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. While an investigative reporter for that newspaper, Woodward, working with fellow reporter Carl Bernstein, helped uncover the Watergate scandal that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation. Woodward has written 12 best-selling non-fiction books and has twice contributed reporting to efforts that collectively earned the Post and its National Reporting staff a Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

[Alexw · Rating 4 out of 5]

From interviews with the candidates for President in 1994(except Clinton who refused to be interviewed), showed the terrifically hard events that led to Dole being the Republican nominated. Clinton lost both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections which led to many people seeking his office.
Was amazed at how Clinton took Gore's advice on dealing with the Washington politics as Gore was an insider with Washington politics for his all life as Gore's dad was a senator also. Clinton's budget proposal was defeated unanimously in the Senate as was his health care bill which stings Clinton.
Throw in multimillionaire Steve Forbes, firebrand Patrick Buchanen and House Majority leader Gingrich-and now we have a party-LMAO! Fun read for political junkies.

[Fred Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book that could have been great, but Woodward chose to end it way before the election of 1996 ended.

[William Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars, rounded down — Definitely not my favorite Woodward book, with the weaknesses explored more below. The Choice was Woodward’s attempt to get right into the middle of the 1996 presidential election campaign, following not only Clinton and Dole, the two major candidates, but also perhaps a dozen other figures who might have played the same role were it not for some combination of circumstance, fate, or desire.

The book is well-reported and well-sourced, with Woodward ever present behind the scenes and even capable of back-channeling between the candidates, at times making news himself by inserting his agency into the story, like when he told Dole about Clinton’s hard feelings about a certain indecent act that Dole then personally apologized for. On that topic, Dole comes across throughout the book as an overwhelmingly decent man, just of a dinosauric generation whose understanding of the world was outdated. Clinton, on the other hand, comes off as a genius without a compass, posturing himself for the election by staking out centrist (tbh conservative) positions, ones that we know today had devastating effects for minority, poor, and senior communities. Not super great for a “Democratic” president!

However, one fatal flaw of Woodward’s journalism in this book, I believe, was making the above points for the reader, rather than letting the reader understand them theirself. Woodward so clearly believed that this book — published three months before the 1996 general election — would be the precursor quasi-biography to a DOLE administration that he ends it with a ridiculously flowery portrayal of Dole, ~just a boy from Kansas~, resigning the Senate to run full-time, unencumbered by his dual role, as if the final paragraph set the angle for the first paragraph of the next book, Dole stepping into the Oval Office as president the first time. Really weird, and perhaps unethical on the fringes imho with numerous passages and words indicating his slanted tone.

Additionally, one other journalistic shortcoming was an attempt to make the book a better read: he often used interviewees’ phraseology but in normal narrative without quotes, in an effort to make it more organic but consequently making it hard at times to tell whether the words were Woodward’s or a candidate’s, blurring a crucial line intended to keep Woodward’s perspective distinct from a candidate’s opinion. This became especially dangerous at times, for example, when Woodward would paraphrase, unquoted, a Dole attack on the federal deficit, treating it as a fact that deficits are bad when, as we know very well today (see Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth), opposition to deficits is not an academic/factual matter but a political one. Bad reporting not to distinguish between the two and treat one as the other!

At this point I should note that journalism and the world have both come a LONG way since 1996, and it’s possible that Woodward would agree with all of my criticisms above were he asked today. He is a legend for being such a critical player at the top of the game for 50 years. I learned a lot about Clinton, Dole, and many others including a giant who died while I was reading this, Colin Powell. Other characters who make cameos, incredibly amusingly bc no one could have known in 1996 what they’d be known for in 2020: Dick Cheney and Paul Manafort!!! among others.

If you’re interested in learning more generally about the zeitgeist of the 1990s, this is an excellent place to start. We’ve come a long way in a short time.

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Lots of names would be applied to Morris's strategy. The most common was 'triangulation,' an alternative to the rigid orthodoxy of either conservatism or liberalism. The political spectrum was conventionally thought of as a line running from left to right, and political figures fell somewhere along that straight line. Morris argued that an innovative leader had to move out of the linear dimension to a point at the center but also above the conventional spectrum. That point then formed a triangle with the left and right."

This quote from Bob Woodward's The Choice. How Clinton won (1996) resonates with me not only because I have a strong dislike for orthodoxy of any kind. In mathematics, I am interested in the issues of dimensionality, thus moving from a one-dimensional straight line to a two-dimensional triangle makes me happier. OK, now seriously.

I am continuing my recent reading project that could be entitled "Politics and the media in the US". Mr. Woodward's work is the fourth in the series of my reads, and the fifth one is in the works (I am including the list below the review).

The book begins with the midterm elections of November 8, 1994 - a disaster for the incumbent president, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, as the Republicans capture both the Senate and the House. The reader will find a detailed chronicle of the presidential campaign between the late fall of 1994 and May of 1996. In my view, the coverage is fair and balanced: both sides are covered with a similar degree of depth and detail, and both sides are given comparable amount of space.

I am amazed how sympathetic the portrayals of both main candidates are: Bill Clinton's and Bob Dole's. They come across as well-intentioned, yet very human in their weaknesses and limitations. The faults of both sides and their errors in strategy and tactics are shown with quite some degree of sympathy. The book is also very well written; one of the examples of the literary skill may be how the author implicitly ridicules some minor candidates, without really saying anything negative about them.

On the Democratic side, the author focuses on the critical role of Dick Morris, Clinton's chief political strategist. Mr. Woodward writes:

"Morris was exultant. He had broken the system. He had broken Panetta, and Ickes, and Stephanopoulos. He figured now he could get control of the White House staff, place his people in key positions."

Despite Mr. Morris's ruthlessness in prosecuting his election strategy, he is also painted with a somewhat sympathetic brush. On the Republican side, the glowing portrayal of General Colin Powell, the almost-candidate, stands out, and the vignette about his extended decision-making process is riveting.

The Afterword, written in 1997, is very interesting. True, it benefits from hindsight, yet while the analysis of the election results is brief, I find it insightful. The reader will find there Mr. Woodward's list of ten political fundamentals for a winning presidential campaign.

The Choice is a masterclass work in political reportage. An interesting, captivating read, yet - at the same time - detailed, deep, and comprehensive. It manages to avoid most trivialities, and focuses instead on the important things - the so-called "Big Picture."

Four-and-a-half stars.

Other books on the US presidential elections and politics that I have reviewed on Goodreads:
H.R. Haldeman, The Ends of Power,
Lesley Stahl, Reporting Live,
Tom Rosenstiel, Strange Bedfellows.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read, but 25 years later it is a very long read. Around the middle part of it starts to get pretty slow.
I would say the first 100 pages are pretty interesting, but Bob doesn’t really end this book. He ends it 6 months before Election Day 1996, and so we don’t find out how this story ends. The copy I have is the original 1996 version, which I understand has been updated to include more info running up to the election as well as of course the results of the 96 election. In other words, the missing 6 months of it.
I think Woodward’s contract had a timeline for him to write this book back then, thus the ending being 6 months from Election Day.
You get to learn some about Bob Dole. You also get to learn some about President Clinton. Dole actually happily sat down for several interview with Woodward; President Clinton did not.
You also get to learn about how Clinton went above the linear system of politics to form a triangle of sorts, as his conservative (!) political consultant Dick Morris instituted with his policies regarding the balanced budget, the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994, and of course his rolling back of the regulation on businesses and banks.
I did feel that Dole was painted as a saint, or close to it. He certainly seemed to be a politician of another era, but even withstanding Woodward’s positive writings of Dole, the reader gets the feeling that he was an anachronism amidst Newt and Pat Buchanan.
I read this book because I heard that there were a lot of similarities between this election and the first election that I remember, the infamous 2008 election. Old, war hero establishment type for the Republicans and new kid on the block for the Democrats.

[Jerry Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insight into the 1996 election. While always revolving around the two main candidates (Clinton and Dole), Woodward also provides insights into the other Republicans who threw their hats into the ring (Forbes, Buchanan, Alexander, Gramm, etc.) and some might have runs (Quayle, Powell, etc.). The section about Powell was the most interesting to me. Overall, though a little slow at parts and I wish it would've gone through election day instead of just to Dole's announcement that he was leaving the Senate, it was a good read and a great reexamination of a modern election.

[Tom Gase · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book by author Bob Woodward really takes you inside the beginnings of the 1996 Presidential Election. But even though it's an easy read and really takes the reader inside the room on what it was like to be there when key decisions were made, my one complaint is that the book ends right when Dole becomes the Republican nominee. I would have liked to have seen the last five or six months of 1996 before the election included in this book. What were the debates like between Clinton and Dole? That you won't find in this book. Neither will you read about who Dole picks as his running mate as the possible vice president. That being said, just about everything else is in. And it's an easy book to read, it doesn't seem that dry to me like some political books are often. Good stuff once again by Woodward, even if this book is nearly 23 years old now.

[Edward Champion · Rating 4 out of 5]

More research for my script set in the 1990s. While this is an improvement upon Woodward's previous book on Clinton (more direct attribution from sources, less wild speculation upon what VIPs were saying in close quarters), it still suffers from Woodward's ego getting in the way of the incredibly compelling story. At one point late in the book, Woodward seriously imputes that it was he -- the Great Journalist! -- who caused Bob Dole to write a specific letter by bringing up his dead mother. At this point, my eyes were rolling faster than one of those Cyclotrons at the state fair. Even so, Woodward's depictions of Phil Gramm (too cocky), Colin Powell (he could have been President, but didn't really have the hunger for it, despite Stephen Ambrose hitching himself to a potential campaign), and, most hilariously, Steve Forbes (clueless, completely out of his depth, hilariously creamed in the Republican primary debate) are very good, as is the internal machinations of the Bob Dole campaign. I think that, with his emphasis on Clinton, he is more convincing as a journalist/storyteller when he is dealing with elections rather than White House power dynamics. I would have liked to learn more about Al Gore's diplomacy, which came in particularly handy in relation to Bob Kerrey, who became Clinton's major frenemy during Bubba's first term, as well as the efforts by Clinton staffers to smooth over the big guy's volatile temperament (exceeded, of course, by the evermore anger-prone Hillary Clinton, who is painted here as something between a brilliant tactician and a space cadet galvanized by New Age nonsense desperately at odds with a hostile and often misogynistic media). Bob Woodward is certainly a deeply frustrating man to read, but his frequent glimmers of power dynamics ARE why this semi-wonkish type reads him.

[Jason Hojnacki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although a little dated, I greatly enjoyed the book! The story flowed and it did not too bogged down in minutia. One area that made me sad was it appeared both Dole and Clinton were patriots, trying to do the right thing for the country. There are not many of those left in the country today!

[Anna Ligtenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

ISBN 0684813084 - Amidst my piles of current political books, there are many like The Choice: no longer current "current event" writings that might seem outdated but actually offer an interesting perspective on today's politics. As I read my way through them, I'm surprised to find that they're still enlightening, informative and entertaining.

In 1994, the campaign for the 1996 Presidential election began. Bill Clinton was pretty clearly the Democratic candidate, but the field was wide open in the Republican Party. Woodward spent time with candidates and potential candidates - Colin Powell, Pete Wilson, Lamar Alexander, Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan, etc - for the Republican nomination, as well as their family, friends and staff. He shares the results of innumerable interviews and gives the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the political landscape.

We know how this one turned out. In fact, Woodward published what looks like his "ISBN 0812880161 Ball Four Plus Ball Five" (if The Choice is "ISBN B000GUBVGQ Ball Four") with ISBN 074328514X The Choice: How Bill Clinton Won. This book ends with 174 days to go to the general election; the other, based on the title, goes further. There's still much of interest in here. Candidate Dole gets much more ink than President Clinton, for whatever reason; considering the way things turned out, that might be a good thing because it's a bit like his political epitaph. On the other hand, the Clintons come out looking a bit insane - Hillary's friendship with Jean Houston and Bill's campaign's misuse of DNC funds, for example, and the hiring of Dick Morris and his rather childish-seeming fighting with George Stephanopoulos, all add up to make the reader marvel that the Clinton presidency went as well as it did.

There's some moments that only have their "aha!" impact in retrospect. At one point, Dole talks about running for just one term with Powell as his VP, leaving Powell as the virtual incumbent. Had that scenario played out, Colin Powell, perhaps the most widely respected voice on foreign affairs, would have been president on September 11, 2001; it makes for an interesting alternative history to wonder about.

Worth a read for the politics junkie, in particular. The similarities between Clinton and Obama range from obvious to surprising; the things Dole and McCain have in common are interesting, which leaves the reader wondering how many times the Republicans will try running an "old man" military veteran against a younger, inspiring Democrat. The more things change, the more they stay the same... in politics, perhaps, more than in any other arena.

- AnnaLovesBooks

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bob Woodward's book on the 1996 Presidential campaign is a well written account of the ins and outs of a primary campaign. It follows both Bill Clinton and Bob Dole from the Dole's early discussions on running for President to his announcement on May 15, 1996 to resign from the Senate. Based on old-fashioned reporting and countless interviews, it's obviously a well-researched piece of work.

As with his later book Shadow, you definitely see Woodward's attachment to the Clintons. Bill is a caring, thoughtful, powerful leader who couldn't understand why people didn't like him after all his successes in the first two years of his presidency. Hillary is a smart, awesome woman who can do no wrong. Bob Dole comes off as a good, decent man, but one who has a hard time being direct or expressing his opinions.

With the advantage of reading this 20 years after its publication, it's fun to see some of the familiar names pop up. Before picking Jack Kemp as his running mate, Dole's short list included Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Tom Ridge, who all eventually served under George W. Bush. Bush also makes a three paragraph appearance as the first-term governor of Texas who endorses Dole just before the Texas primary. Perhaps most prescient is where Woodward, in the span of 30 pages, says that Colin Powell would make a good Secretary of State.

Even though Woodward's political leanings are clear, the book presents a fair portrait of the campaigns and those involved that any political junkie would enjoy.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange, but when I was close to finishing this book I thought my review would be more negative but right towards the end I realized it was very insightful and I learned from it. I'm even thinking I would like to read more "political" books and also historical books on governments and how they are run and the people that run them.
Another odd insight is that parts of it in the beginning could have been written for the present time with the liberal vs. conservative battle that has been going on. Maybe it has always gone on but now we have social media that involves us more closely? It looks like some things never change. Although there is a difference...it is more cruel and divisive now. Hopefully, the cream will rise to the top for all of us in the next election.
I would also like to commend Bob Woodward, the author, as this type of book, the research and then putting it all into some semblance of order and on top of that making it readable to the general public had to be an unbelievable feat to accomplish. Hats off to you Mr. Woodward.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably should have read the description a little better before picking this one up. I didn't realize until I was about three quarters of the way through the book that it was published before the election was held. I was hoping to read more about the general election.

The book was an interesting read but sort of dragged on with detailed stories of the power struggles that existed in both campaigns. I was sort of alarmed by how much influence Dick Morris had in the Clinton White House. I like Clinton but over the last year I've seen Dick Morris say some really ridiculous things. Woodward outlines many of Morris' big moves in the Clinton campaign and a few that Clinton himself squashed before they came to fruition... probably for the best.

A decent read but would have been better if Woodward could have waited and added in the general election campaign stories.

[Clem · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: This is a review of the original edition; before the election was held.)

I still remember when this book was released. I was working for an entertainment distributor and one of our tasks was supplying Wal-Mart with their books. It must have been around July 1996 and the presidential election was still about four months away. When I first saw this book as I opened up the shipping box, my initial thought was “I don’t get it.” Why would anyone spend around $20 for a hardback book that seemed to be about the two frontrunners for the presidential race that would be over in four months? Wouldn’t this book be obsolete once the election was over? And, like every other presidential election, wasn’t there still a lot of story left to tell about “the choice” that would occur in the months leading up to Election Day? No, I didn’t get it.

28 years later, I still feel kind of the same way. I bought this book (heavily discounted of course) mainly because I have recently discovered how much I enjoy the writing of Bob Woodward, and I’m always interested in history; especially of the American variety. There probably isn’t a better writer of the ins and outs of Washington politics than Bob Woodward. Still, I maintain that for this book to be complete, it should have been written after the election. It would have been much more rewarding. I suppose, though, that book publishers focus more on profits than telling a complete (and sometimes) true story. My guess is a high-level accountant realized that such a book, featuring a picture of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole meeting in the oval office, might generate some needed revenue to improve the current balance sheet; even with a few months still to go in the contest.

Woodward’s last book was about Bill Clinton’s tumultuous first year in office (“The Agenda”) and in some ways, this book picks up a bit where that one left off. Two years after Bill Clinton was elected president, the honeymoon he had with the American voters was definitely over, and the acrimonious public showed their sentiments in the 1994 mid-term election with a stinging defeat for many of the Democratic incumbents. Enter Newt Gingrich and company, and you have to wonder if Bill Clinton regretted his decision to ever run for the highest office in the land.

I would guess that about 70% of this book is devoted to the Republicans deciding who their nominee would be (with the focus on the obvious first choice, Bob Dole) and all of the backroom squabbling going on and clandestine handshakes being conducted. The other 30% is about Bill Clinton, and how he must now reinvent himself with new messages to regain the trust of a skeptical electorate.

So the book succeeds where it sets out to do so. Reading this book reminded me a bit of watching a season of the popular television show “The West Wing”. We see all the wheeling and dealing in the back rooms, the campaign staffs for the candidates and how they always seem to be at odds with each other, and we get a glimpse into candidates who try yet eventually fail in their bids to achieve the top prize. Throughout all of this, we almost see Bob Dole become the leader “by default”. He never comes across as terribly appealing, yet he has money and his resume that puts him in the lead. He often seems a bit confused, lost, and is frequently ill with a cold. We always see his masses of employees trying to correct every aspect of his behavior and appearance. It does take a special breed of person to want to put themselves through so much turmoil. As mentioned earlier, we also get to read about Colin Powel, Steve Jobs, and Phil Gramm among others, as they all compete, or think about competing, for the top spot, yet they can’t compete with Bob Dole’s experience and money.

With Clinton, we read a lot about his inner circle as well, the focus is mainly the newly hired political strategist Dick Morris. History has shown Morris as to being a somewhat sleazy underhanded character, but I would argue he deserves credit for getting Clinton back in favor in the public eye more than anyone else on the payroll. (Google “triangulation” to get an idea of what Morris’s strategy was.)

What’s really unfortunate, yet not really surprising, is that when we hear all of these strategies behind the scenes, the main sentiment is never “how to we help our citizens?” yet rather “what do we need to do to get elected?” True, you can’t do the former without accomplishing the latter, but it is very easy to get a tad disgusted when really digesting exactly what is going on during this election, and pretty much every other election. A good argument can be made that this isn’t really to fault of the candidates, yet the fault of the voters, but let’s not even begin to go there.

The biggest drawback, as I mentioned, is that this book basically “stops” before the story is finished. Now, I think that at some point, a reissue of this book came out that did tell the remainder of the story. If so, I would probably recommend that edition since Woodward is a solid writer, and I’m sure he doesn’t disappoint the reader as he conveys the facts. Still, though, one can’t help but look at this original edition as a tad of a gyp and more of selfish money-grabbing endeavor.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like political inside stories, you'll like this book. It chronicles the 2 years preceding the 1996 presidential race between President Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. The author had access to all the key players so his views ring authentic.

[Jaime Hernandez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this before the 1996 election and in his detailed style, Woodward does a good job of describing the candidates and their styles. Ultimately, Clinton shames himself and the office with the Lewinsky scandal, which says something bigger about the results of "Choice."

[Eli]

Woodward paints an intimate picture of the inner workings of an otherwise lackluster and boring 1996 presidential campaign. Clinton and team work on building a strong message but the weak challenge by the Dole/Kemp team, I think provided a true lack of foil in the story.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This made along quite nicely, but I've started and put down without finishing two other Woodward books. Unless he's writing with Carl Bernstein or about John Belushi, the man's a bore.

[Douglas Graney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, considering the foregone conclusion of that election.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

so far very informative and interesting... at least from a political junkie's perspective

[David Rosage · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to the book on tape on long trips.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good primer for the reelect.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book, and it was really interesting to see the parallels between the 1996 election and the 2016 election, especially regarding the infighting among the Republicans.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty unbelievable journalistic access from all parties in the 96 elections .. wonderful piece of history ... writing style was a bit halting

[Jeff Noble]

The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House by Bob Woodward (?)

[David Allen Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a great fan of Bob Woodward. The actual Nixon tapes showed he and his colleague pre-supposed or made up some of the content of their books on Nixon and in recent years, many of Woodward's churned out books have read like little more than an assemblage of interviews. The Choice, about how the now little-remembered 1996 presidential campaign began, is a bit different. It reads very genuine. People forget now but in early 1996 Bill Clinton's presidency was a controversial mess. His healthcare plan had been defeated in Congress and his party then lost control of both houses of Congress for the first time in over 40 years. The odds were, that like Carter, Clinton would not be re-elected. But as this book makes clear, Clinton swiftly found his footing when Republican extremists, led by Newt Gingrich, badly over-reached. Gingrich failed to realize the election that brought him to power was more a rejection of Clinton than an endorsement of his "Contract for America" a radical plan to cut well-established government programs. So many Republican extremists came to power that compromise in the budget was impossible and the government shut down several times for weeks, playing very badly with voters. Clinton swooped in with the help of controversial consultant Dick Morris, and he stabilized his floundering presidency and presented as a sensible alternate to the Republican extremism.

At the same time aged World War II veteran Bob Dole slogged his way to the Republican presidential nomination. As this book showed, he had no idea why he wanted to be President or what he would do if elected and his public speaking and presentation simply could not compete with Clinton. He also had the impossible task of trying to unite the extremists and the moderates in his own party. As history would show, he failed miserably, and never was a serious challenge to Clinton's re-election.

This books shows clearly that Gingrich cost the Republicans any chance to win the 1996 presidential election and also shows that while Clinton started out shaky, he learned on the job and would come to be a successful and effective president despite the fact the Republican extremists never stopped harassing him and his wife.

The downside of this book is that Woodward ends it when Dole gets the Republican nomination and does not cover the 1996 general election. It spoils what otherwise might have been the seminal account of the non-competitive 1996 presidential election.

[Peter Thorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're plodding along, reading this, enjoying all the 1990s political names and anecdotes, and all of a sudden you're thinking, 'Huh, I'm halfway through the book and we're not in 1996 yet.' Well, the reason for that is that the book ends (afterword not included) 174 days before the election. Why? Because Bob Woodward, that's why.

He obviously has outstanding contacts and unbelievable access to major players. Still, at times, sections read like a literal transcript of an interview, and that makes the whole thing a bit more skewed.

There is undoubtedly really good insight and there are some excellent moments in the book. The parts on fundraising, or the discussions around Bosnia intervention are fascinating. The most in-depth aspects are on the Republican primary, and on the use of television advertising by Clinton, which in some ways seems quaint in comparison to today.

It is probably worth reading for a politico, but don't expect the whole election.

[Josh Bramlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed many parts of this book but the title and cover are misleading. This is really a story of the 1996 GOP primary and of the 1995 budget negotiations between Clinton, Dole, and Gingrich. The book actually ends at the start of the general election. However, the reporting on Dick Morris' advertising strategy in 1995 and early 1996 does set the stage for how Woodward thinks Clinton won - with massive amounts of early advertising. The book is more about Bob Dole than Bill Clinton but it's also about what leads people to run or not to run for president. We get some interesting thinking from Colin Powell and Dan Quayle on their decisions not to run as well as Steve Forbes deciding to. I read this book because I've read all of the Woodward Trump and Biden books and wanted to check out his older ones, but this didn't flow as compellingly in my reading.

[Clair Keizer · Rating 4 out of 5]

If one believes the ugliness of politics began with the 2016 election, think again. While hardly the emphasis of Bob Woodward's book, The Choice, reading between the lines, it's clear that the devious efforts of Newt Gingrich and Phil Gramm among others contributed to the issues we have today. Yet, there was also still decency and outward respect among political rivals and opponents then that has all but disappeared today. Eventual republican nominee Robert Dole, senator from Kansas and Senate majority leader and then-President Bill Clinton were respectful of each other and admittedly admired much about the other in their run-up to the 1996 presidential election. The Choice is a terrific piece of US political history of the likes we may never see again.