Well I just finished Suzanne Goldenberg’s latest book entitled: “Madam President - Is America Ready To Send Hillary Clinton To The White House?” It was quite a revealing book for me because I never knew too much about Hillary Clinton beyond my examination of her healthcare policy in an earlier article on this website. I knew Senator Clinton was quite popular in New York and that she was fairly famous because of her husband; former President Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was also my favorite American president in my short 25 years of life but I think I was too young to follow politics before President Clinton came to office so that may not be a fair statement.
Suzanne Goldenberg is an award-winning journalist for The Guardian and has been the newspaper’s US Correspondent since 2002. I never realized that British papers had a base in Washington but here is this lady covering American politics for The Guardian which is a fairly well-read paper in the U.K. The book is exactly 160 pages long and I finished it in just over a week reading over 10 pages a day. The book really starts on page 7 and ends on page 167. It is fairly small compared to the previous book I read by David Mendell but surprisingly captures the essence of Senator Clinton and her past few years in politics in an accurate and non-historical manner. It was an easy read without overt complexity and I believe anyone above the age of 12 could appreciate.
The book is also quite objective and discusses the good and the bad about Senator Clinton but concludes in the end that:
“…a safe pair of hands might be just what America needs.”
I found the conclusion, or the final line of the book fairly surprising considering that during my read of the book, I felt that the author viewed Senator Clinton negatively. I could be wrong but that might be due to my Senator Obama bias kicking in. Given that bias, I went through this book highlighting the portions that worried me about Senator Clinton as the potential presidential candidate or Senator Obama’s VP. She is willing to do whatever it takes to get elected; this showed when she was running for the Senate in NY. She has also adopted the centrist approach of her husband without elaborating to the general public what she stands for but tells people what they want to hear.
Don’t get me wrong, even with all these negatives, I still admire the Senator but I don’t think she epitomizes what I want in a President. I know what Senator Obama stands for which is why I support him and hope he will win in the general election. This is a great book and honestly if you are like me and want to know the essentials of Senator Hillary Clinton than I encourage you to buy this book. If we had to talk a rating, I would probably say 6 out of 10. Mainly because there were certain portions of Senator Clinton’s past that I believed the author skipped out on and that she didn’t really answer the question whether America was ready to send Senator Clinton to the White House. My favorite portion from the book which goes back to my earlier point:
“The problem was, it was never quite clear what those beliefs and ideals were, and at least some of that confusion seemed deliberate. As Charlotte Mull Young, a high school teacher and committed Democratic supporter in her 50’s, noted after an election meeting in the town of Council Bluffs, Iowa: “I think she is a good public servant. I am just not sure who she is serving yet.”"
May 15th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
No… I’m not for Hillary either, Crian, but would prefer her over Obama. Having said that, I want to commend you for admitting you are “biased.” So am I!
May 15th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Crian,
I admire that you were willing to read more about Hillary, even though you prefer Obama. You have made me curious about what’s in the book. I can fit 10 pages a day into my life, and I’ll try not to be too critical, but this will take great effort! Thanks for the post.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Gayle,I know we are both biased but know that is a great asset:)Good luck with the rest of your week Gayle since I know you are going to be quite busy.
Hey Tina, well I was not too enthusiastic on the Hillary book but I figured it would be appropriate if I really want to write about the subject matter. It’s a decent book and short so believe me you will get through it in no time.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Clinton: Still In The Race (CBS News)
There seems to be less of a shootout between Obama and Hilary.
http://tinyurl.com/6xf9qg
May 15th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
Thanks for the video Tate, I would think so there would be less of a shootout considering the divided nature of both camps but hopefully Senator Clinton will be able to sustain being nice but you never know.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
While I agree that Hillary is political and driven, I think she is a ‘do-gooder’, whether
inately, or for political reasons; she is smart and has put together solid proposals.
She is also hated by a significatnt portion of the US public. As a liberal, I have no problem switching to Obama, other than his programs seem
less well-defined at this point. Bookwise, I just finished Susan Jacoby’s ‘The Age of American Unreason’ to
better understand my conservative friends….
May 16th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Hey BB, I would definitely agree with you that Hillary is smart. From reading that book, Senator Clinton seems like one of the most succesful woman I have ever read about while she was working privately and as a Senator of NY.
I honestly don’t understand why alot of people hated her, before this election, I was pretty much ammivalent and I am sure I will go back to feeling like that once it is all over.
Susan Jacoby, sounds like a good idea for myself BB, thanks for dropping that in here. The only problem is most of the big name bookstores don’t sell alot of american books here in Ireland but I will plan to order it anyway.