#42 Bill Clinton Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Bill Clinton
1. In a macabrely-quirky irony, Bill’s father lived through World War II, as a soldier, only to die, back in the US, when driving home to his wife. “Bill Blythe had set out the previous afternoon from Chicago, where, just out of the army, he had landed a job selling heavy equipment. He’d intended to drive all night to Hope [AR] to pick up his pregnant wife and bring her back up north. But three miles outside of Sikeston, Missouri, a front tire blew out, and the Buick spun out of control. Rescuers searched for the driver for two hours before finding him in a drainage ditch.” And the greatest irony of all… “He had escaped the overturned car only to drown in three feet of water” (Michael Takiff, p. 9).
2. Bill’s list of friends was legendary and it was well-known that once you were his friend, then you were in for keeps. For instance, “Thomas F. ‘Mack’ McLarty III attended kindergarten with Bill. He would be Bill’s first White House chief of staff” (Michael Takiff, p. 14).
3. Bill was so good at playing the saxophone that he received a full scholarship to LSU. “He was offered, unsolicited, a music scholarship to Louisiana State University. At that point he had already decided to go to Georgetown” (Carolyn Staley, p. 29-30).
4. Bill was, at the time, the youngest governor in the country. “In January 1979, thirty-two-year-old Bill Clinton took office as the nation’s youngest governor” (Michael Takiff, p. 52).
5. Clinton was actually allergic to wine. “Also, the sipping wine [alleged by Gennifer Flowers] didn’t seem very realistic since Bill Clinton is allergic to wine and breaks out in hives anytime he drinks wine” (Jack Moseley, p. 109).
6. I love Chicken George! “Bush didn’t want to debate [during the 1992 campaign]. There was this guy in Michigan who got a chicken costume and started going around Michigan saying ‘Where’s Chicken George? How come he won’t debate?’ Local TV picked up on it. Our [Clinton’s team] state director says, ‘I’ve got to find this guy.’ So she hunts him down, and she says, ‘Look, Bush is coming into the state. Will you show up at the event?’ And he’s like, ‘Sure I’d love to.’ We sent a local news package to all the national reporters: ‘Here’s Chicken George, he’ll be at the event.’ So he gets there, they all find him, they all take footage of Chicken George, Chicken George shows up on the national news. We then take that and say, ‘Okay, Chicken George is now in every state.’ We instructed all our staff, ‘Go out and rent a chicken suit. When George Bush comes into your state, you’re going to have the chicken man at every event, no matter where he goes.’ It made Bush crazy, to the point that in Ohio, later in the campaign, Bush is speaking off the back of a train, there’s a chicken costume, Bush speaks to the chicken. At that point we knew we had won. If Bush is out there talking to a guy in a chicken suit, our message got across. And then he crumbled and decided to debate”(Craig Smith, p. 141.) Classic!
7. It was no secret that the economy, under the Clinton administration, was booming. “Whether or not Bill’s reintroduction of federal fiscal discipline made the difference, he would preside over the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history” (Michael Takiff, p. 177).
8. Clinton was the first president to visit Northern Ireland. “Tens of thousands, Catholic and Protestants, came to cheer the first sitting American president to visit Northern Ireland” (Michael Takiff, p. 282).
9. I’m pretty sure that Clinton is the only sitting president to be held in contempt of court. “In April 1999, two months after the impeachment ordeal ended with Bill’s acquittal by the Senate, Judge Susan Webber Wright would issue a thirty-two page ruling in which she held Bill in contempt of court for his testimony in the Jones deposition” (Michael Takiff, p. 336).
10. Let’s not forget that this was merely the second ever impeachment trial for a president (Remember the first? Andrew Johnson #17). “On the morning of January 7, 1999, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist swore the one hundred senators to ‘do impartial justice.’ The second impeachment trial in the history of the American presidency had begun” (Michael Takiff, p. 375).

As you may recall, I was rather wary about reading a book like this. I was worried, among other things, of blatant bias on the author’s part and of a disjointed narrative due to the oral nature of this biography. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. First of all, the book was easy to read and I was surprised at the amount of pertinent information included. In other words, I didn’t feel like I had to read another biography of Clinton in order to garner the important points. Secondly, I rather liked this truly odd style of biography. The author gave introductions and wrote narrative when necessary but for the most part, allowed the actors to have the floor. Trust me, at this stage of the game, I am desperate for interesting, out-of-the-box biographical styles to keep me hooked.

And honestly, how could I not love this author? This quote was pulled directly from the author’s introduction and when I read it, I remember thinking, “Ha!” “For all his accomplishments as president, Bill Clinton is stuck, fairly or unfairly, with the image of a sex-crazed dude who loves to party, an incorrigible lech who can’t resist a piece of ass no matter how awkward or inappropriate or dangerous the circumstances. (In fact, the titter factor forced a change from the original subtitle of this book: An Oral Biography of Bill Clinton)” (Takiff, p. 3). My estimate of Michael Takiff just shot straight up. This book contained tons of fascinating behind-the-scenes tidbits which made my job, as reader, especially awesome. Also Takiff unusually ended the book by including a “Closing Arguments” section which dealt with some of the various people quoted throughout the book. In this section, these people give their final estimates of Bill Clinton and what he stood for in the long run. Very informative.

I like how Takiff really set the stage for Bill Clinton and showed us just how mesmerizing he could be. Clinton was a great listener, very empathetic and I could understand how this young governor of a small state managed to take the entire United States by storm. Not only by storm, but really, by illusion. As I read all I kept thinking about was how on earth Clinton was elected after all the shit that came out about him in that first campaign: draft-dodging, marijuana, Gennifer Flowers. Dee Dee Myers, Clinton’s press secretary, said it best, “There was this remarkable dual track that people, I’m particularly thinking of reporters, were proceeding along: How could this guy be such a shit and be so compelling at the same time” (p. 122)? Any other politician would have been considered non-existent politically (or otherwise) after all that but not Bill Clinton. If I didn’t know better, I would say that his campaign practically thrived under constant media duress. Weird.

What’s even weirder is that Clinton made this whole United States presidency-thing look incredibly easy. In fact, Paul Begala, Clinton’s political consultant, singlehandedly credits Clinton’s ease as president for the presidency of George W. Bush. “Hillary used to say to Bill Clinton while he was president, ‘Your problem is, you make it look so easy.’ In that sense, Clinton might have caused Bush. I think Bush sat there in Texas, very modestly talented, and watched Clinton and thought, ‘I can do that.’ It’s the same way I can watch LeBron James and think, ‘I can do that.’ But then I go out in the driveway and I make a fool of myself” (p. 430). Takiff takes that idea and really goes on to slam George W which really quite annoyed me. If this is supposed to be a scholarly work on Bill Clinton then the author’s personal feelings do not apply here. I also found it annoying when the author tried to get cutesy with his words. Here he quotes Clinton and then adds a little playfulness of his own. “Recognizing that your work has received an excellent grade is one of the most important rewards in life,’ wrote the former Leader of the Free World whose middle name is Jefferson” (Takiff, p. 412.) Argh!

On the whole, I enjoyed this particular work, not only because I felt like I intimately got to know Bill (which was the author’s purpose, after all) but also because I really liked this oral-style of biography. As to Bill Clinton and what I think about him…well…I’m going to steal a quote from the author in summation. “Principled battler for the common good? You bet. Shameless opportunist? Yup. Authoritative commander in chief? Affirmative. Feckless commander in chief? Indeed. Brilliant pragmatist? Yes. Inveterate compromiser, willing to sell out millions to get a deal? Right. A man of rare empathy? Obviously. Self-interested son-of-a-bitch? Certainly. Liberal? Conservative? Centrist? Check, check, check. One of the smartest people on the planet? No doubt. An unbelievable dope? And how. And the question: Who is Bill Clinton? This book presents the argument over this complex, compelling, confounding American. It will not settle that argument” (p. 6).