Customer Reviews

The Case Against Hillary Clinton

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(82)

 

 

Peggy Noonan is a talented writer - clear, lucid, witty, always engaging. Her book offers ample insights into why Hillary Clinton and her husband will hopefully "just go away", rather than continue to inflict their special blend of arrogance, hypocrisy, and deceitfulness on the country.

Ms. Noonan's case could have benefited from stronger editing. I felt, for example, a hypothetical conversation snippet imagined at Hillary's future gravesite was regrettable and tasteless. More concerning - especially after Ms. Noonan wrote negatively (and accurately) about Edmund Morris fiction/non-fiction Ronald Reagan biography - was an extremely interesting portion of her book set at Michael Eisner's home; a scene which turns out, in the end, to be entirely made up by Ms Noonan. She describes how she wound up watching this (fictional) scene, as the friend of Eisner's housekeeper! I felt disappointed and manipulated after reading this fascinating scene to find out at its close that Ms. Noonan had imagined it entirely - including fictional quotes from Ted Turner, etc.

The whole thing left a bitter taste - much like Edmund Morris' fictional footnotes. I felt similarly concerned about Ms. Noonan's repeatedly telling us, sometimes with quotes, what the Clinton's were thinking during various scenes. Can we have a collective moratorium against fictional excursions set unannounced in in purportedly non-fiction, serious books? Ms. Noonan is a wonderful speech writer - I feel she may have succumbed to the temptation to write Hillary a good speech here and have some fun in the process - but she could have done this and made her point far better by just saying "Here is the kind of courageous speech I would love to hear from Hillary but never will."

Clearly the case against Ms. Clinton is strong enough that one doesn't have to rely on fiction - the unembellished truth about the Clintons is scarey enough.

Despite my reservation about the long fictional scene. and and a number of comments about Hillary's appearance and the like which seemed to me to be unnecessary and a touch mean-spirited, I certainly support Ms. Noonan's basic contention that Hillary Clinton should never be Senator from New York or any other state, and join her in wishing the Clinton's a long, un-event-filled. retirement somewhere where they will do the least damage to the country and the people around them.

The subject and target of Peggy Noonan's new book The Case Against Hillary Clinton is not so much Hillary Clinton, but rather Clintonism, the corrupt and cynical philosophy of politics as a means for obtaining and maintaining power that has damaged and divided the country over the past seven years.

Ms. Noonan admits that the book is a polemic written by someone who is very much one of the "Other People" and not "My People" in Hillary Clinton's Manichean ethos. As a polemic, The Case Against Hillary Clinton more closely resembles Christopher Hitchens' No One Left to Lie To than it does Barbara Olson's unflattering biography of Mrs. Clinton. Peggy Noonan does not have the temperament of Hitchens, whose contempt for William Jefferson Clinton literally drips from each page as he punctuates his points with stinging epithets. One gets the impression that she treated this book as a necessary duty. She takes no joy in examining and explaining these joyless and empty narcissists who are unable to live without the adulation and attention of others. In another context, we might feel sympathy for them, but not when they play out their private issues on the world's stage and at the nation's expense.

The Case Against Hillary Clinton makes a convincing case why the people of New York should NOT elect Mrs. Clinton as their Senator. She shows that Mrs. Clinton possesses above-average intelligence, below-average character, and virtually no accomplishments of her own. The only substantive venture for which she was given responsibility, the misguided and health care task force, ended in political disaster, which directly led to Republican control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Prior to that, Mrs. Clinton was a partner in a politically-connected law firm in a state where her husband was attorney general then governor. She brought two of her partners from the Rose Law Firm to Washington, D.C., one ended up committing suicide and the other committing felonies.

Ms. Noonan skillfully argues that a person of such low character and meager accomplishments as Hillary, who has no connection whatsoever to New York State, would seek to be its senator is a mind-boggling display of mad Boomer narcissism. That she has a good chance to win speaks volumes to the moral decline of the character of the nation under Mr. & Mrs. Clinton's stewardship.

Mrs. Clinton's dubious achievements are strikingly at odds with her inflated opinion of herself. Ms. Noonan contrasts the Clintons' extreme arrogance, sense of entitlement and moral superiority with the humility of great men like Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Mrs. Clinton's candidacy is significant because it foretells an ominous thought: that, unlike other presidents who gracefully left the world's stage and pursued quiet dignified lives -- witness for example Jimmy Carter -- the Clintons will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the limelights and the attention they crave.

I only gave the book 4 stars out of 5 because it covers little new ground. As a polemic, it falls short of the rhetorical brilliance (and excesses) of Hitchens' prose. It touches on a number of themes, which have been developed more fully by other authors. Finally, Ms. Noonan could not resist the temptation to include an Edmund Morris-like incident, which fooled me badly and illustrates the opportunities squandered by people who wanted the power of the Presidency not to achieve great things but to be big people.

Noonan has done a wonderful job of describing what most of us have come to know over the last seven years. I thank God that someone has put into words what Clintonism and its founders have done to this country. This is a must read for anyone who wants the unvarnished truth about Hillary Clinton, and without the left-leaning filtering that the media usually performs when it comes to the Clintons.

The facade is shattered in Noonan's wonderful book as the First Lady is exposed as empty and as hollow as her rhetoric. The author succeeds in laying bare the truth and is unflinching in her analysis. An excellent job and Noonan deserves high praise. With Hillary, there is simply "no there there", and in that sense this book's revelations of hypocrisy and valuelessness are quite disturbing. This deserves wide attention during an election year when Clinton's empty hyperbole has replaced substance, a tactic that is cited as typically self-serving by Noonan.

To be sure, Noonan's critique of Hillary Clinton is an tough argument, but it is not a personal argument, and it is not lightly made. And it should not be lightly dismissed.

Noonan's book is a critique of Clintonism -- as practiced by him for the last decade,and also by her. The essence of Clintonism is not liberalism, it is egoism. It is an utter willingness to say or do anything -- or un-say, and undo anything. And it works more often than not, facilitated by the likes of James Carville, George Stephanopolous, and countless other spinners and trimmers. That's why people should read this book; if Clintonism is rewarded at the polls in 2000 for a third straight time, American politics will be further transformed -- for the worse.

It's been a long time since I've read a book that stuck to one simple but profound truth in such a crisp and cogent manner. It is indeed a polemic, but it is a polemic with a purpose - - a polemic in the public service.

The Clinton White House, its acolytes and apologists, and its Hillary-led, Mao-like driving sense of entitled victory at all costs has scraped the national consciousness bloody. Much like a doctor removing bits of glass from a patient furious with discomfort, Noonan will be vilified by segments of the public tired of their collective skinned knee, and she will be demonized by the thought police on the Hillary payroll and best-friends list. Noonan's intellectual and personal courage in writing this burning indictment of a Stepford Stalinist who has more in common with Napoleon the boar in Orwell's "Animal Farm" than with Elizabeth Cady Stanton is to be more than applauded. It is to be gravely surveyed as the first book to coolly, and not a little sadly, mine the psyche of a First Lady who devoted her considerable intellectual firepower and Oscar-worthy charisma to the ignoble end of her own personal advancement on the backs of the disenfranchised and needy, and to the destruction of those who stood--and still try to stand--in her way. Continue to wield your surgical tweezers in the service of the national consciousness, Dr. Noonan: we, the easily charmed public, may snarl at your unpleasant pathological findings, but someday when the Clintons finally have their superegos pried from the national podium, we'll read this book again, and marvel at your insight, wit, and fearless icky surgical exploration of the "Being Hillary Clinton" national psychosis. And if Hillary wins the Senate, and then runs for president, we will all shake our heads and think, Peggy, you tried to warn us.

This is an oftentimes sad, sometimes beautiful little book--it's amazing that such a dense, on-target portrayal could rest between the covers of such a slim volume. Noonan is a very good writer: measured yet passionate; fair yet surgically precise with her well-informed exploration of the Clinton psyche--and thus our own. I recommend this book highly. As a Democrat, I long ago gave up attempting to figure out the Clintons and their awesome selfishness. Noonan has finally allowed me to let go and accept the past eight years. I'm giving copies of this book to all my New York friends--the embarassing era of Clintonism must end. Buy this book now, read it, highlight it, talk about it.

As an Arkansan and an acquaintance of the Clintons and an amateur student of their governship/presidency, I especially welcome Noonan's masterpiece of insight on the issue of "what the Clintons are". I have attempted for over twenty years to articulate that definition, and have found that if I had just waited for this book, I could have saved myself the trouble. The Clintons are everything Noonan says they are, and it's not a pretty picture.

For the reviewer from New York: if you don't know the facts about the Clintons, with an emphasis on Hillary, read "Hell to Pay" and "Partners in Power". If you then want to read a book that brings together all the scandals, all the dissembling, the unprincipled opportunism and the sleaze, and explains, in clear if majestic prose, what the result is: "what the Clintons are", reread this book. It will mean much more to you.

A great many of us outside of New York pray that you all will end Clintonism, and the Clintons will then just go away and leave us alone.

Tim Watson

Beware, New York, beware! In her trenchant "tribute" to the ubiqitous Hillary Clinton, Peggy Noonan heaps some well-deserved opprobrium on this woman with the acquired sense of entitlement, this "selfless" woman who is "running [for a US Senate seat (NY)] for the children." Noonan cogently details what eight years of Clintonism have built: A seamy, tawdry, Camelot-knockoff. Would-be Senator, you're no Jackie Kennedy! (Oh, please...can we focus on the issues and get back to doing the work of the people of New York?) Bottom-line: There are no coincidences in the Clinton White House. And as for some reviewers calling Noonan's blunt work a "screed" and "character assassination," Hillary needs no help from Ms. Noonan. She's done very well on her own.

This is not the venomous screed others would have you believe it is. It is a level headed, quiet examination of HRC's credentials. Other than a good economy (thank Mr. Greenspan) the Clintons have accomplished little in their almost eight years, because their real mission is to get and retain power. It's all about THEM. That's why Bill keeps on fund raising and HRC has to run for office now...it's all about staying on the stage, not on accomplishing anything worthy for our country. Most important for New Yorkers, Noonan points out the now-almost-forgotten Healthcare debacle in which HRC tried to hide the plan from the public and failed to build a consensus; it was an utter failure. Now, she tells us that Rudy's not fit for the Senate? Fact is, Rudy has a track record of success, and HRC's only real attempt at POLICY-MAKING was a debacle. Now she can only sell herself by telling us how much she CARES. Noonan shows us that Hillary is unfit for the office she seeks. Let's hope the people of New York see behind the facade and help HRC "just go away."