For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years | 
 enlarge | Author: Sally Bedell Smith
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 158680
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 608
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.9
ISBN: 1400063248
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.9290922
EAN: 9781400063246
ASIN: 1400063248
Publication Date: October 23, 2007
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Product Description
During their eight years in the White House, Bill and Hillary Clinton worked together more closely than the public ever knew. Their intertwined personal and professional lives had far-reaching consequences–for politics, domestic policy, and international affairs–and their marital troubles became a national soap opera. Based on unparalleled access to scores of Clinton insiders–cabinet officers, top administration officials, close personal friends–and skilled analysis of a vast written record, including previously unavailable private papers, For Love of Politics is the first book to explain the dynamics of Bill and Hillary’s relationship, showing that they are two halves of a unique whole and that it is impossible to understand one Clinton without factoring in the other.
Sally Bedell Smith, acclaimed author of Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House, offers intimate scenes from the Clinton marriage, with new details and insights into how a passion for politics sustained Bill and Hillary through one crisis after another. With clarity and depth, Smith examines the origins of an unconventional copresidency, explains the impact of the Clintons’ tensions as well as their talents, and reveals how Hillary shifted from openly exercising power in the first two years to acting as a “hidden hand,” advising her husband on a range of foreign and domestic issues as well as decisions on hiring and firing.
Smith describes for the first time the inner workings of a White House with an unprecedented “three forces to be reckoned with”–Bill, Hillary, and Al Gore–and shows how the First Lady’s rivalry with the Vice President played out in the West Wing and even more profoundly during the 2000 campaign. As Hillary seeks to follow in her husband’s footsteps, this riveting book will leave readers marveling at what they never knew about Bill’s intensely covered presidency–and wondering what it would be like to have two presidents, both named Clinton, living in the White House.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Great idea. Too bad it's so weighted down with lard. July 8, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I wanted a book in which the central focus was the relationship between Bill and Hillary Clinton. I got a book in which the central focus was scandal. No question: Scandals were a crucial and indelible part of the Clinton administration, and a necessary element of any half-way honest account. I have no doubt that Smith gets the details right, and after reading this book I was properly furious with Bill. He lost a lot of his idealism, became far too poll driven, disgraced the presidency and the White House in particular and gave us eight years of George W. Bush. Heck, the way this book puts it he was almost single handedly responsible for 9/11. It just defies credibility that the book doesn't aknowledge in any detail that the Clintons accomplished a single thing in eight years, that there was anything going on other than the scandels and the failures. I don't know that Smith is necessarily a Republican, but I do know that she pads her meager anecdotes about the Clinton family with the lard of the Lewisnky and White Water scandels, and she comes across less as a historian than as a gossipy tabloid writer.
In the days of the balanced budgets May 16, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Was it all so seedy, all so sordid? That's how the Clinton years feel reading this book. Of course, most depictions of the inner workings of any White House administration make for a depressing read. But perhaps a little more effort could have been made to explain how they did not seem to mess things up so much in the Clinton years. The best part of this book, is how it shows the Clinton working together so intimately. People who think they should have gotten divorced don't really understand the complex dynamics of their relationship.
 Bias wrapped in a lie May 3, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I watched Ms Smith on book tv talking about this book. She was giving her lecture in front of a biased group of think tank people. Hint #1
She is totally biased. She is a very good assassin and deserves whatever they paid her to write this attack piece. When a right wing think tank with board members from the health care industry invite an author to give a speech about her book....then buyer beware...DONT BUYT THIS BOOK.
For love of politics......and politics, and politics. April 14, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
In the past few months, I have been reading a lot about the Clintons. I wanted to know more about Hillary. After reading Carl Bernstein's "A Woman in Charge", I had a favorable impression of her, even though his account was not slanted in either direction.
This book focuses more on the Hillary and Bill Clinton's dynamic. After reading this book, it is clear that you cannot study one without the other. They are truly each other's "other half".
After reading this book, it is clear that they did run a co-presidency during Bill Clinton's 2 terms in office; and it is understandable to see why she refers to this time as the needed experience for her own presidency plans.
In fact, the impression I got from this book is that even without the Monica Lewinsky and Whitewater incidents, Bill Clinton would still not have been an effective president without Hillary at his side. She brought the discipline that he needed to put into practice his political dreams.
He on the other hand provides the political vision and spontaneity in thought, that she lacks.
The book is successful in showing that Hillary is certainly capable of being our next president, but it also makes you wonder if you really want her to be. I felt that the book was not as objective as it could have been. I have always liked Bill Clinton, but I finished this book disgusted with his sexual behavior, and with the distinct feeling that they are both so political ambitious and self-centered, they will step on anyone, say and do anything to get elected. This book did not present the facts in an objective way as Bernstein's did, but in a more negatively-slanted manner. She mentions The Drudge Report without illuminating us on its creator, she talks about Mellon Scaife without clarifying how much money he gave to feed the right-wing conspiracy that was definitely working against the Clintons; and she mentions David Brock as a source against the Clintons, without mentioning that he later wrote a book describing in detail all the lies and manipulations that were exercised in the conspiracy that Brock himself confirmed to exist.
Perhaps one of the more interesting "side effects" of this book for me, is the light it sheds on Al Gore. I had already gotten a whiff of his brilliance in Bill Clinton's autobiography, but in this book he is also shown to be a highly honorable, decent man. It once again, saddened me to reflect on how different the world would be today if he had been president these last 8 years.
I have often wondered why Al Gore has not endorsed either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. In view of what I read in this book, I don't think he would endorse Hillary; but he would probably feel he was betraying the Clintons if he endorsed Obama, and so will refrain from doing so. In the end if he does endorse Obama, it will be because he truly believes in his candidacy and not for payback to the Clintons, even though he would be quite justified in doing so.
In conclusion, reading this book has changed the way in which I view the Clintons. Although it is true that they were the victims of a right-wing conspiracy, they made many personal and political mistakes, that gravely affected the presidency. In the book someone is quoted as saying that Bill Clinton was a great president but not his presidency, and I think this is not only very accurate, but could also describe Hillary Clinton's presidency, if there's ever one.
 Outstanding History March 24, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
What a surprise For Love of Politics was. I bought it as an alternative to the recent works Her Way and the one penned by Carl Bernstein. I hoped that it would be more objective than those two publications and I was not disappointed. This is an excellent history and happens to be one of the few books in my life that I could not put down.
As for the author, before purchasing my copy I knew nothing about her. Indeed, I had never heard of Mrs. Bedell Smith before. All her bio online tells us is that she is a biographer who works at Vanity Fair. The endorsements listed on the back cover come from mainstream media sources like the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post so, upon receiving it in the mail, I was a little worried that the analysis would be slanted. I am pleased to report that my fears were unwarranted as For Love of Politics gives off no odor of bias whatsoever. Indeed, these chapters are bathed in neutrality. Clinton supporters might not like this but if justice offends then one must examine oneself.
As a conservative who has read five or six rightist accounts of the Clintons, I can quickly grasp from what side of the political spectrum commentary comes; although, here I had no idea. Even after devouring all 450 of these pages, I am as befuddled in regards to what Mrs. Bedell Smith thinks as I was when I first opened it. I can think of no higher compliment to bestow upon a historian than saying that they are above political manipulation which Mrs. Bedell Smith definitely seems to be. Her evaluation of these primary source materials (original sources) was compulsively fair which is also true of the narrative on aggregate.
The real art here is that she allows the Clintons to tell their own story...but what a story! The tale remains timely as Hillary may well be our next president. For Love of Politics was entertaining but incredibly educational as well. Old time students of the Clintons will learn new things and neophytes will have a chance to get beyond the soundbytes that saturated the two terms of our 42nd President. In my humble opinion, this is a must read.
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