Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
Electoral Math
Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
J. Bradford DeLong, Soft on Education | Home | Real Life Intrudes
Choice quotes:
"I wanted to be a good man, have a good marriage and children, have good friends, make a successful political life, and write a good book." -- on his A list goals in life.
"What mattered was that my father was the love of her life and she had no doubt of his love for her. Whatever the facts, that's all she needed to know as her own life moved toward its end." -- on his mother's reaction to learning that Blythe had married several times before meeting her.
"The knowledge that I, too, could die young drove me both to try to drain the most out of every moment of life and to get on with the next big challenge." -- on the impact Blythe's death had on his life.
Bill Clinton puts almost no effort in creating an overarching narrative for his memoirs. Trying to emphasize narrative would mean giving short shrift to policy discussion or the details Clinton finds so fascinating. Therefore, there isn't much to lose by reviewing the book in a chapter-by-chapter basis, treating each chapter as more or less separate from all the others. I'll certainly have to reach back to previous chapters from time to time, but such theme-related work will be the exception, not the rule.
It would be impossible for any summary to capture completely the tenor of the biography. There is simply no way for me to include every side-story, every . To that end I heartily recommend that you buy a copy from Amazon.com, preferably in hardcover.[hey, you can't expect me not to do a little self-promotion]
On the whole, My Life is, well, a chronicle of the life and times of Bill Clinton. Of its 950 pages, roughly 200 are devoted to his life from birth to the beginning of his political career in 1974. His 16-year career as Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas spans another 125 pages. The 1992 Presidential campaign lasts 75, and the remaining 500 pages are devoted to the Presidency. Much of the strength is the meandering style that such a length allows. In his interview with Charlie Rose, Clinton says that one of the reasons he wrote the book the way he did is to try and show that when you're President "everything happens at once". Of course, this is also true of life itself, so even his recounting of childhood bears a stylistic resemblance.
In the Rose interview, Clinton also mentioned in that one of the ways he tried to keep score in life was to ask the question "do people have better stories to tell". It would be hard for conservatives or liberals to say that Clinton failed in the regard. But this quote illustrates the importance of storytelling to Clinton's political style. Whenever possible he tried to point out the real life impact of his policy recommendations, or the success of individual experimental programs that he watned to adopt nation wide, or the risk of not adopting them. He also was willing to show people that at the end of the day, even the President is a human being, who has real feelings of joy and sadness, and real flaws, just like the rest of us.
In this spirit, chapter one My Life is a brief three pages on Clinton's birth and some background on his biological father, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr. Blythe died in a car accident in May of 1946, three months before the birth of his son. Clinton goes on to give us single-paragraph vignettes of several characters who came forward after he became president to say that they knew his mother or his father. The most powerful statement is from the one that got away:
Shortly after I left the White House, I was boarding the USAir shuttle in Washington for New York when an airline employee stopped me to say that his stepfather had just told him he had served in the war with my father and had liked him very much. I asked for the old vet's phone number and address, and the man said he didn't have it but would get it to me. I'm still waiting, hoping there will be one more human connection to my father.
It's nice to remember that even after being President, there is always some unfinished business.
Up next: Chapter 2: Clinton's early childhood.
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updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 09:32 26 February 2005
