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 This is a brilliant book! The best among Woodward's many fine works on politics of and near the presidency in the last 25 years.Read this book from the first page onward. Do not simply jump to the "juicy parts" about Clinton as apparently all the inside the Beltway crowd does or you'll miss Woodward's development of his theme of how the presidency has changed. Woodward argues that Presidents have to be forthcoming in order to avoid public expectations of deviousness. At the same time, he is highly critical of thepetty nature of the offenses that have been raised to indictable or even impeachable offenses. As is widely known, no one gets inside the secret chambers of high office as does Bob Woodward. In this book we get good analysis to put in context the hitherto secret conversations within the White House The one fault I would takke is that although Woodward criticizes media excesses in general, he does not name names. Someday I hope Woodward will put his enormous reportorial talent to work in focusing on the large, influential, and as yet untouched Washington journalists.
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Bob Woodward, revered for his work in breaking the Watergate scandal, tries to take the higher ground and make a mockery of the Presidency. Never once does he suggest the press went too far and not once does he offer a solution to the downward trend in the Presidency that he writes of. This book is all commentary with interspersed quotes to make the uninformed reader believe Bob Woodward's views to be fact. To the reader beware...check your history books and keep your mind sharp. Anyone can point the finger--but the truly good book would offer a way out, a way forward, and a fair look at each of these men and the treatment they endured at the hands of a liberal press.
The first half of this book provides some insightful tidbits about the Nixon, Ford and Carter years. However, the second half seems to be a rehash of Woodward's work covered in The Commanders and the various Clinton scandal books. Woodward appears to be trying to validate his contribution in coverage of the Watergate coverup and its subsequent impact on history. What Woodward fails to mention is that it is a different world today than in the 1970's, with 24 hour news coverage, papparazzi, high tech yellow journalists, etc., and their collective impact may be why the last few Presidents have had such a rough time. The author should go back to his roots and remember why he became a journalist in the first place. All the President's Men and The Brethren were excellent political studies, and made for compelling reading. It has been many years since Woodward has produced anything worth reading. This book is a disappointment--but when based on his recent work it is not a surprising disappointment.
