Mood:
chillin'Topic: Politics
PAGES 330-620—whew! Although I still have about 330 pages left in this hefty book, it's a great accomplishment that I've made it this far. Since I've been on holiday break from work, I chose a good time to take on such a challenge, because I really have spent ALL of my time reading.
Having said that, please keep in mind that these lil recaps really don't do this book justice. All I can do is pick out bits and pieces from each section and talk about them. Obviously, there is much more to read about in the book, with lots more details...but to get all those you should read the book yourself.
This section of the book read much faster than the first, mainly because we start getting into his actual political life and its accomplishments. This section houses all the campaign details and his terms as the governor of Arkansas. We also get to read about the presidential campaign and his first term as president.
In the events of the 1992 presidential campaign, we meet everyone on Clinton's staff (including Louisiana Cajun and LSU alumni James Carville) and his opponents including the all-forgotten Ross Perot. For this election, I was in the second-grade, so many of these things I remember hearing about from my parents and I saw them on television, but I was too young to understand them.
And of course, with politics come scandals. Thank God for them! I must confess that, while I truly respect Clinton, these little behind-the-scenes tidbits really keep me chugging along in this book. This scandal popped up on the campaign trail, when the Star tabloid said a woman named Gennifer Flowers had a twelve year long affair with Clinton. At first she denied it, but then later claimed she had tapes of ten phone conversations with Clinton that would prove the affair.
Of course, the media loved this story. To crush it, Bill and Hillary did an episode of 60 Minutes: "We talked to the interviewer, Steve Kroft, for over an hour. He began by asking if Flowers's story was true. When I said it wasn't, he asked if I had had any affairs...Kroft, unbelievably asked me again. His only goal in the interview was to get a specific admission. Finally, after a series of questions about Gennifer Flowers, he got around to Hillary and me, referring to our marriage as an 'arrangement.' I wanted to slug him. Instead, I said, 'Wait a minute. You're looking at two people who love each other.'"
Another part of this section that really caught my attention was the introduction and speech from former governor Zell Miller. His speech told the story of growing up with a single mother who built a house with her bare hands. He says:
"So, you see, I know what Dan Quayle means when he says it's best for children to have two parents. "You bet it is. And it would be good if they could all have trust funds, too. We can't all be born rich, handsome, and lucky. And that's why we have a Democratic Party."
Pretty cool, huh? I sure thought so, until I kept reading and saw this from Clinton—"When Zell Miller was elected to the Senate in 2000, Georgia had become more conservative and so had he. He became one of President Bush's strongest supporters, voting for huge tax cuts that exploded the deficits and disproportionately benefitted the wealthiest Americans, and budgets that threw poor children out of after-school programs, unemployed workers out of job training, and uniformed police off the streets."
Kinda weird...to say the least. When I did some research on Miller, I found out that maybe his party-switch had to do with abortion, as he moved from pro-choice to pro-life. I also read that also he was a democrat, he was a conservative democrat who probably found more support among republicans.
Sadly, this section of the book takes us through several deaths including that of Clinton's mother and Vince Foster. Many of these deaths, even Foster's suicide, were later investigated and written about as they were said to be caused by Clinton.
I can easily say that I'm looking forward to reading the next, and last, 300 pages. I'm starting to wonder what I'll do after I'm finished with this book...then I remember that I got Hillary Clinton's autobiography for Christmas.
