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All Too Human is a new-generation political memoir, written from the refreshing perspective of one who got his hands on the levers of awesome power at an early age. At thirty, the author was at Bill Clinton's side during the presidential campaign of 1992, & for the next five years he was rarely more than a step away from the president & his other advisers at every important moment of the first term. What Liar's Poker did to Wall Street, this book will do to politics. It is an irreverent & intimate portrait of how the nation's weighty business is conducted by people whose egos & idiosyncrasies are no sturdier than anyone else's. Including sharp portraits of the Clintons, Al Gore, Dick Morris, Colin Powell, & scores of others, as well as candid & revelatory accounts of the famous debacles & triumphs of an administration that constantly went over the top, All Too Human is, like its author, a brilliant combination of pragmatic insight & idealism. It is destined to be the most important & enduring book to come out of the Clinton administration.… (more)
User reviews
- Republicans are evil and nasty, and practice dirty politics.
- The media were essentially snoops and gossips.
- The public never got to know the good the Clintons were trying to do.
Stephanopoulos is a liberal. He admits it over and over again. To me, his political involvement boils down to a man who had strong ideals and wanted them carried out. Bill and Hillary Clinton were the means to that end. He fought for them and protected them tooth and nail as their senior advisor. He advised them not to give in to the mean Republicans. Combat the media since they are only trying to divert attention from the Clinton's noble cause by instead focusing on petty and insignificant scandals.
Then along comes Dick Morris. His job is to get Clinton re-elected in 1996. His poll-driven philosphy is for Clinton to run to the center and abandon the Democrats. He and Stephanopoulos have numerous conflicts. Both want to be Clinton's main policy maker. For a while, Morris wins.
Whether intentional or not, Stephanopoulos repeatedly shows how policy decisions were decided not based on personal principles or what was right for the country. They were based on what would be popular with the American people (i.e. voters). After the 1994 Congressional revolution, Clinton needed to get re-elected.
Just because I thought a lot of what Stephanopoulos said was wrong doesn't mean I think it's a bad book. It's quite good and it's easy to read. He does a good job of looking at some of the Clinton administration's more popular issues (Health Care Reform, Balanced Budget, Welfare Reform, Affirmative Action, Gays in the Military, etc) from a liberal insider's point of view. I'm sure a Republican/Conservative like myself has thought on several occasions that Clinton and the Democrats were evil and the Republican platform has the answers to all the country's problems. You just have to put yourself in his shoes and keep this in perspective while reading the book.