Because He Could

This book is readable, informative and appears to be very well-documented. As a former apologist for Bill Clinton, I have to say that this book was a revelation to me and frankly made me a little queasy. I can't believe that I helped put this man in office. Morris can speak with genuine admiration about many of the positive steps, but also chronicles the dark side in a way that many of my former fellows will find hard to accept. Despite some significant accomplishments during his administration, there was confusion, ineptitude, cronyism, lack of vision, and downright corruption. I was on the one hand proud of Clinton for things like his extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which lifted so many low-income families out of poverty, and on the other hand absolutely enraged by the dithering and delay and lack of action in Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, Bosnia, and Rwanda that contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths, thereby emboldening Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda to commit acts of mass murder on our own soil. I am left with the forlorn feeling that, with both the Clintons, there was always a lot less there than meets the eye. Allow me to apologize if you disagree with my perspective...my advisors made me write this...

First of all, I didn't read this book because I wanted to understand Bill Clinton better. I have never figured out why people say he is a mystery or an enigma. The book title "Because He Could" pretty well sums up Clinton's motivations and character. His public actions show him to be a weak man with a desperate need for attention and approval...your basic narcissist. Through luck, intellect, charisma and an insatiable drive for power, this particular narcissist made it to the presidency. (To me, the much bigger mystery is how people could vote him in even once, much less twice.) So why did I buy the book? I think Dick Morris is a brilliant political researcher and strategist whose grasp of the political climate is right on target 99% of the time. I wanted to see what his writing was like. I wasn't surprised to find that his writing style is witty and crisp. I thoroughly enjoyed Because He Could. The chapter on terrorism reminded me what a cowardly president Clinton was, always putting political expediency above what he was smart enough to know was best for the country. His paralysis in the face of difficult decisions was explained very well by Morris, who attributed it to his fear of criticism of his own draft dodging and his pathological need to be popular. I recommend this book very highly to anyone who is objective about Clinton, whether Republican or Democrat. To those who were taken in by Clinton's charm and remain enamored of him despite his despicable character and overall poor performance, I wouldn't suggest reading a book that rubs salt in the wound. But most of all, I hope anyone who has a thought of supporting Hillary for 2008 will read this book as well as Rewriting History (which I'll tackle next). The only negative thing I came away with was wondering how Dick Morris could have stomached working with this man and helping him stay in office...it makes me sadly realize his own character couldn't be too swift. Maybe he's changed for the better, as all of us can, and this book is a testament to the better man. I think I'll enjoy reading more of Dick's books...he is singularly qualified to write on the subject.

I couldn't put this book down. Morris has the real goods on Bill Clinton and analyzes all Clinton's seemingly inexplicable actions.

Dick Morris comes back again with his second punch knock-out for the Clintons. The author, a former advisor to the former president, knows what he is talking about. "Because He Could" becomes the neutralizer to Clinton's book, "My Life," just as "Rewriting History" was to create an equilibrium for Hilary Clinton's "Living History." Now I am not sure you can call Morris a partisan, as he aided the Clintons personally, though he is surely not positive towards the family in his books. For anyone thinking that this is book is all about slander on the Democratic party in the midst of an election, the answer is that Bill's book just came out a few months ago and I'm sure that it took a while for Morris to get through with "My Life" and to create his own book. Thankfully "Because He Could" is about a third of the size that "My Life" is. If Morris is doing this for partisan or political reasons then I say, why the hell not? We have Kitty Kelley, the gossiper, writing a book on our current sitting president solely to oust him, containing nothing but character assassination when she has never even met him. I'm not comparing Morris to Kelley at all, as Morris actually worked with the Clintons and is quite more respectful to the people in the aim of his books.

He played a large part in adivsing Clinton on how to get out of the mess he got himself into. Ignore partisan reviewers who just love Clinton and probably didn't read the book.