Clinton's Book Coming Tuesday
President Bill Clinton's new book "My Life" will be available Tuesday. Various news outlets including the AP and the New York Times have acquired advanced copies and have begun releasing excerpts and reporting on the contents. The publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, reportedly payed a $10 million dollar advance to the former president for his 957 page book (for those of you that don't want to do the math - that is $10,449.32 a page). I have no doubt the book will be a best-seller due to the left's love affair with the ex-President.
What I want to know though is what makes anybody think there will be any truth in the book? Will people just accept the written words as truth from a man that perjured himself under oath? Can somebody like Bill Clinton actually come clean and tell the truth in writing? I have my doubts. If any of the reporting is true about the book it also shows that Hillary lied at the time as well. That probably won't phase New York voters though. Pity.
Some interesting notes in an AP story ( http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040619/ap_en_ce/clinton_book_12 ):
"Clinton said his biggest presidential mistake was a 1994 decision that would ultimately lead to his impeachment — asking then-Attorney General Janet Reno to name a prosecutor to look into his Whitewater land dealings." I would think there were bigger mistakes in the Bill Clinton presidency myself. Dismantling human intellegence gathering for the CIA, pulling out of Somalia, and Al Gore all come to mind. There are many other examples as well.
In a videotaped interview to be shown on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, Clinton is quoted on the Lewinsky affair: "I did something for the worst possible reason. Just because I could," he said in the interview. "I think that's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything." I can't argue that quote at all. It is indefensible.
This is Bill Clinton's (well paid) attempt to write about his presidency and his life in such a way as to shape how history will eventually view him. A term that keeps popping into my brain about this whole book is "revisionist history". I'll read it when the library has a copy available. I'd hate to think that any of my money is going directly to the man.