If you were a Bill Clinton fan, you'll find this book to be overly critical and full of too much innuendo. If you are a Republican, you will be dissatisfied with this book as being too Democratically oriented. If you are a Democrat who cannot forgive Bill Clinton for getting involved with Ms. Lewinski, this book will be right up your alley.
Everyone who saw me carrying this book was puzzled by the title, which means to suggest that Bill Clinton is not very welcome with many Americans but is loved abroad. But I'm not sure that's accurate. I daresay that if he could run for president again his standing in the polls would be much higher than that of President Bush or the apparent nominees from the major parties. That title gives you a tip-off that Ms. Felsenthal has an agenda . . . which is to remind everyone that the Democrats didn't do very well after Bill Clinton fell from grace.
Although Ms. Felsenthal interviews a lot of people who were once close to Bill Clinton, she never identifies which ones are now major Obama supporters . . . which undoubtedly colored their views. I believe that's poor research that harms the value of what she wrote. In particular, I was struck by how many of the most negative comments came from prominent Obama supporters. Since the interviews took place during the campaigning, could it be that some responses had a political motive behind them? I don't know, but I'm skeptical.
She also seems to be quick to take credit away from the leadership roles that Bill Clinton has played. She is much more impressed by Ira Magaziner's hard work on helping reduce AIDS in Africa than in Bill Clinton's ferocious fund raising for the same cause. The truth is that both are needed, and the two men have worked as a team for a long time. One doesn't take away from the other.
From that, you get a sense that Ms. Felsenthal has an extremely high opinion of what an ex-president should be able to accomplish: Raise tens of billions annually, solve the world's most difficult problems single-handed in a few years, and never be seen in public with anyone who ever indulges in improper behavior. Well, that would be nice. I suspect that the George W. Bush period of being an ex-president will yield a more reasonable set of expectations. In that context, Bill Clinton's first years out of office will have to be re-examined.
I did like the photographs.
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