The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President

Although the book reads like Cliff notes to the White House Memoir one hopes Clinton will someday write, it nevertheless clearly underscores the man's substantive merit and the clear principles which were the foundation of his efforts to accomplish as much of his agenda as was politically possible. What is most impressive about Clinton, as portrayed by Branch, is his interest in and command of detailed FACTS rather than theory or opinion in deciding how to proceed. What is most distressing is the complete and utter failure of the media to focus on issues of substance over fluff and its inability to report on complex issues fairly and fully. Read this book and see how much the press failed to cover during the Clinton years. Taylor Branch is, himself, a wonderfully accomplished, thoughtful, and principled historian. His trilogy on the King years should be required reading for every American. One of the real pleasures of this book is learning a little more about Mr. Branch and his family and getting to share in his excitement over spending time with the President discussing issues of importance.

Taylor Branch is a noted historian and Pulitizer Prize winner for one of the three massive and excellent books he wrote concerning the late Rev. Nartin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement. As he explains early in the book, scholars have been grappling with how to render an impartial version of the history of presidencies, now that huge libraries are being built to contain the plethora of items that touch upon every Prresident: legislation, correspondence, electronic taping, gifts, memorabilia, etc. Reagan was aware of this issue and appointed an official biographer early in his tenure and Edmund Morris, a noted historian himself, was given unprecedented access to the President and his White House. His resulting work failed, however, for many reasons, most notably that he was unable to retain the journalistic distance needed to create a proper history. President Clinton and Branch knew one another during the McGovern campaign in 1972, sharing an apartment in Texas to help run that area of the operation. When he was elected, being aware of the historical issues I've noted, Clinton contacted Branch and asked him for a recommendation on how the needs of history could be met. What they settled upon has been described in many places, so I'll save some time. This is what Branch created based on his observations of the process he and the President underwent. As in any good history, there is distance and criticism, as well as nearly overwhelming detail. "Wrestling History" is a great title, as a comparison between it and Clinton's own autobiography finds many differences and I think the interested reader will enjoy both, as they reveal different facets of the same President and the semi-universe of a modern presidency. What I gleaned the most from Branch's book was, somewhat surprisingly, how big a role politics -- the horse-trading, the pork-barrelling, peevishness, etc. -- shapes a President's (or Congress') accomplishments. Perhaps I'm naive, but I'd like to think that occasionally Washington operates on a "need to help" basis, and thus this book can be quite disillusioning. It's particularly good reading right now as we watch the pols toss around universal health care one more time. Branch belabors his efforts to remain honest and impartial, regardless of the consequences. For that reason I suspect it will not be popular, but will have earned its place in history.

Taylor Branch served as a diarist for Bill Clinton while he was Presdient, meeting with him at various times, to record his thoughts and impressions of current events, politicians, etc. These tapes he then gave to the President, but made his own tapes on the drive back home of what he remembered being said that day. This book is based from the latter tapes. The book provides many fascinating details and insights from a very astute and intelligent man during his tenure in office as President of the United States. Even better is that this information is not colored by hindsight from thoughts taken years later-like, his impressions of Yeltsin or Assad while he was dealing with them and not after their death, or his thinking about Whitewater as the investigation progresses at various stages and not after he left office and was exonerated. Whatever your feelings are about Bill Clinton, this book will give you a better idea of the vissitudes that a President faces and in this book, how he handled them.

President Clinton had not been in office long before he summoned Taylor Branch, an original "FOB" (friend of Bill) and noted Martin Luther King scholar, to begin a series of taped conversations as Clinton's own presidency progressed. The result of these hours of dialogue forms the basis and narrative of Branch's book, "The Clinton Tapes", resurrecting the author's recollections of these discussions. It was an immense undertaking and is full of historical reward. We learn so much about Bill Clinton, the man and the president, that would otherwise not be known, until or unless the tapes, (which President Clinton has) are released for public consumption. What is perhaps not so surprising is that many major current events change so quickly. Reflecting on the early years of the Clinton presidency, who remembers now so much focus on Haiti and President Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Even the war in Kosovo and other former Yugoslav republics are now in the background of many of our thoughts. Of course, the Middle East, the Korean peninsula, India and Pakistan are still "current", but many of the players have changed. Yasir Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein are all gone now, but Clinton's examination of them makes it seem like just yesterday. We get to see a president who is utterly engaged in peace processes around the world with a deep understanding of the conflicts that arose during that time. We also witness a personal side of Bill Clinton that is remarkable. He is often so dead tired that Taylor Branch finds him nodding off during their meetings. The president loves basketball and his own golf game, but isn't particularly knowledgeable about baseball. More than occasionally he seems to suffer from some physical injury or allergies depending on the day and season. Clinton dislikes the media intensely (as do most presidents) and through Branch's remembrances Clinton remains very close to Hillary and Chelsea. But there's humor, too...Clinton's own comparison of being president and running a cemetery is very funny, and Arafat's self-deprecating joke is hysterical! A more poignant and steamed up Bill Clinton, however, has a candid conversation toward the final chapters with outgoing vice president Al Gore regarding the reasons for Gore's loss of the White House. Those few pages are among the best in the book. A significant question that any reader might have is this: "as a friend of the president, was Taylor Branch too close for impartial recall?" I suspect the answer is yes AND no, as Branch ponders that proximity throughout the book. If there is one downside to "The Clinton Tapes" it is on that very point...the author injects himself a little too much sometimes into the narrative. That said, this historic book covers the Clinton presidency at every level and most likely will be the best look at the White House from 1993-2001 from an outsider's point of view. I highly recommend it.

Taylor Branch and Bill Clinton were comrades-in-arms in the Texas Campaign of George McGovern for President. Twenty years later after he took office, Clinton invited his old friend in to offer him an important job. He wanted Branch to be his White House historian, his "Arthur Schlesinger." That plan didn't work out, but the two old friends did decide to make some "living history," no holds-barred contemporary tape recordings of the events of Bill Clinton's Presidency as they occurred. Taylor made two duplicate tape recordings of each of 79 two-hour interviews conducted over a period between 1993 and 2001. In order to insure that the President felt like he could talk candidly about even the most delicate subjects, it was agreed that Clinton would keep both tape recordings of each interview in his personal possession. Clinton put both of the only copies into "what he called `a good hiding place'--his sock drawer" in the dressing room next to his and Hillary's White House bedroom. This book is not a transcription of those secret tapes. It is the author's recollections and notes of each of those two-hour "shooting the bull" confabs. After turning over the recordings to Clinton for safe storage in his super-secret hiding place, Taylor Branch would drive himself home. During the hour it usually took him to reach his driveway when driving home late at night and early in the morning, he would make another tape recording of his impressions and recollections of what was said during the earlier White House interviews. These "driving home tape recordings," his notes and memory are the basis of this 700 plus-page book. Clinton or his library will probably eventually release the President's tapes, but as of this date, they are still secret although the President told his old friend that he used much of the material in them for his own memoir and was delighted to have it. The book includes a very detailed 38-page index that makes this material much more accessible to the reader. Unlike other recent memoirs by major political players this book doesn't ignore negative events in the life of the book's main character. Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones et al are listed in the index dozens of times with lots of cross-references. It's easy to locate the material that most interests the reader or researcher. That makes this book a particularly good reference book. Ever since this reviewer took a speed-reading class in high school, rapid consumption of the printed word has been the norm. However, this book isn't all unfamiliar territory. Because this reader and most of the first readers of this volume will have lived through much of this very recent history and already have a decent knowledge of the events in it, it's difficult to speed read this book. The reader constantly comes across details of the story that cause the reader to have to slow down, pause and carefully consider how these new insights on the events differ from the reader's own knowledge