Customer Reviews

Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America

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This is an excellent read! If you are unconvinced of the corruption we have had for the last eight years, then this book will cause you to reconsider. It also goes into detail as to how Bill Clinton got into this terrible state.

Anyone who dismisses this book as unsubstanstiated is obviously partisana and also hasn't been paying attention to the news for the last eight years. An objective and reasonable person will see the truth and the truth is what is written is true and well documented. Mind you this is a close friend of Bill Clinton who wrote the book! No agenda - just truth for those who can accept it.

This book highlights the pattern of deceit, drug use and corruption. Frankly, I'd rather not be in denial but admit the obvious about this man. Hopefull the American people will never allow someone of this low calibur ever become President again.

The early chapters are devoted to the childhoods of the President and First Lady. Unless the reader has an inordinate interest in a third party's opinion of what made somebody who and what they are, these chapters are a bit slow. Some of the detail, however, is quite engaging. From about the middle of the book on, it is almost impossible to put it down. The author pulls no punches, dealing openly with allegations of cocaine use in the Governor's Mansion during the Clinton years, screaming and profane fights between the two Clintons, and a compromise on Hillary's part to live with Bill's hundreds of one-night stands in order to attain her goal of First Lady. The writer does an excellent job of explaining Hillary's commodities market caper, Whitewater, and other shady deals involving the First Couple during their Arkansas years. It you have heretofore had trouble understanding the finer pints of those events because explanations were convoluted and arcane, the writer's language will likely clear up your confusion with his straightforward, clear, and concise prose. I recommend this book to both Clinton fans and their detractors. It could easily persuade the former to rethink their position, and the latter to say "see, I TOLD you what he was!" A must read.

Roger Morris has obviously done a ton of investigative work to complete this book. He threatens to be terribly profound when he hints at a systemic crisis well beyond the misdeeds of the Clintons, but he never really gets beyond his obession with making a point about the Clinton's 'lack of character' and the compromises they commit on their way to the summit of American politics. There has been so much trash talk aimed at the Clinton's for fairly tranparent partisan reasons this book just seems to be another in a litany of attacks. So the Clinton's compromised basic values in their drive for power. I don't really see much insight in that. I hate to sound like a Clinton apologist, because I can see the guy for what he is, but this book would have been for more effective if Morris went into more detail on the swamp that is American politics, campaign finance, influence buying generally and the whole compromised morass of those who achieve real power in American life. Perhaps Morris would write a follow up book on that subject ranging well beyond the infirmities of the Clinton's, drawing parallels between the culture of our nations capitol and the unseemly machinations of power in our supposedly pristine state capitols.

This book detailes the corruption of not only the Clintons but Arkansas and Washington D.C. as well. The book paints a picture of the idealistic and somewhat tortured personal lives of two people who get caught up in the corruption of not only Arkansas, but Washington D.C. The book does get kind of bogged down in discussing tangents to the main theme of the book, the Clintons, but its meant to show what kind of Arkansas and Washington D.C. they came into politically. The book, although defintely not pro-Clintons, avoids purely polemical and emotional language and writing. It is a sad commentary on politics in general and our country when corrupt people can get into high places.

I read this book in 1996 not long after it was published. Still impressed upon my mind is the revealing life theme of a couple consumed by the lust of power and greed, with Bill Clinton in particular consumed with the lust of sex. These lusts lead them ever further into corruption and the abuse of power. A second major impression left upon my mind is that the writer himself is not a conservative political partisan; that, unlike the Democratic party as a whole, he is not willing to cover up or excuse the damage the Clintons have done.

I read this book several months ago, and the details of it have largely left my head, but overall I found it worth the read. There is a *lot* of detail here, much of it interesting, some of it not, but you come away with a definite picture of the Clintons as *people*, which is what I want from a biography. What I found most interesting was the early history of the two (as college students and before). I mean, everyone knows every politician is a slimy weasel, but what's fascinating is how they get that way. :)

Of course, the book is also great for providing the kind of secret-government-paranoia and slick-willy-hoodwink facts that can really enliven cocktail party conversation. Give it a shot.

I looked forward to reading about the early life of Bill Clinton and his early marriage and the Arkansas days, etc, and this book has a lot on that--quite substantial. So I was a little shocked to arrive at page 440, where Morris refers to "Clinton's extra-marital relations with literally hundreds of women" Hundreds? That would be a minimum of 200. That's really quite a lot. I had always assumed a dozen or two.

I began to wonder how that would work. Is a governorship such an easy job (just a lot of paper signing and speechifying) that an accomplished shmoozer can fit it in between hundreds of trysts? Whatever you think of his politics, it must be admitted that it's quite an accomplishment, especially considering he wasn't really all that interested in the governorship or the trysts, but rather the presidency.

And what of the "Partner in Power"? Could she see early on that her husband was a politician of such consumate skill that he was a shoe-in for the presidency, and so chose to overlook his turning Arkansas into his personal harem? And what of Hilary's other partner in power, Vince Foster, now dead? If Morris touches on their "semi-private kisses and furtive squeezes", an "intimate professional bond between two attorneys", then surely he ought to dig a bit deeper on the cause of Foster's death. No sign of depression prior to the suicide. No death threats. What on earth happened to Vince Foster.

All these deeply intriguing topics--Bill's monumental multi-tasking, Hillary's apparent acquiescence, Foster's mysterious death--are touched on but lightly. What really interests Morris is financial scandal, into which category he places, seemingly, any transaction over $10,000. The book is larded with endless, and I mean Endless, details of money for campaigns, money made in teal estate, many made in banking, in retail, in government, in law, in public and in private--all with the implication or explicit assertion that a crime was committed. And Morris doesn't stop with the Clintons. The Republicans and Reagan in particular come under his moral lash for using too much money to get elected or to celebrate having been elected. Literally hundreds of pages are devoted to venting his indignation at the expenditure of money in politics, almost as though he believes that the only ones fit to govern are indigent altar boys or investigative reporters.

This reader would have liked less of the sort or quasi-incrimminatory fodder that fills the pages of the Village Voice and more probing into the feudatory state of Arkansas, perhaps interviewing some of the hundreds of women. There's a gripping story there, a noir classic, but I doubt it will be revealed by poring over old account ledgers.

My wife and I read books to each other and "Partners in Power" gave us reason to continue. At first Mr. Morris painted the President's boyhood as one full of poverty, abuse and instability yet his drive to gain power began early in his life. We enjoyed stopping and discussing potential reasons for his behavior as governor and president. We found his boyhood stifled and bland until he became entwined in draft evasion. The decline of his values continue as the book outlines his climb to the presidency. We know of Dan Lasater here in Northern New Mexico. We heard his low-flying cargo plane, and pass his airport that our state government helped him build. Critically, I did not get a good understanding of the President and Mrs. Clinton as PEOPLE. The book didn't do this for me. I do, however, recognize his disarming style of "telling stories"

This is an excellent read! If you are unconvinced of the corruption we have had for the last eight years, then this book will cause you to reconsider. It also goes into detail as to how Bill Clinton got into this terrible condition.

Anyone who dismisses this book as unsubstantiated is obviously partisan and hasn't been paying attention to the news for the last eight years nor of late. An objective and reasonable person will see the truth and the truth is what is written in this book. It is well written and well documented. Mind you this is a close friend of Bill Clinton who wrote the book! No agenda - just truth for those who can accept it.

This book highlights the ongoing pattern of deceit, illegal substance use, womanizing by force and corruption. Frankly, I'd rather not be in denial but admit the obvious about this man. Hopefully the American people will never allow someone of this low caliber ever become President again.

This is a highly reputable book with loads of revealing information about who the Clintons are and how history will ultimately judge them. It explains how they could bring so many enormous disasters to themselves, to Al Gore's campaign later, and to Hillary's campaign after that. Even though the Clinton years were ones of overall prosperity, people are tired of their scandals and foul character as detailed in this book.

Roger Morris, a reputable Democrat, served with distinction for Democrats Lyndon Johnson (president of the United States), Dean Acheson (Secretary of State), and Walter Mondale (vice president and candidate for president). He is NOT a Republican attack dog. He is reputable and this book is well researched with the facts.

For his biography of Richard Nixon, Morris was a finalist for the reputable National Book Award, a very selective award of integrity. His biography of Nixon was authoritative and accurately showed Nixon to be ambitious, intelligent, willing to be ruthless, and at times paranoid. His biography of Nixon was not a Republican whitewash. It was fair, and Morris was part of the reputable PBS American Presidents documentary of Richard Nixon.

Partners in Power presents the facts. It is NOT a Republican attack book.

However, this book does not cover the many later scandals, such as Bill Clinton giving away numerous pardons for donation, including on the lamb, wanted by the FBI. It does not show the hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth that the clinton built with Bill Clinton working for a billionaire in California and clients in the Middle East while his wife influeneced policies in Washington D.C. They refused to release their tax returns for most of the primary, except at the end after Super Tuesday.

It does not mention Hillary Clinton's race-baiting remarks in an interview in USA Today, 'I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,' she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article 'that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.'" Or remarks from Geraldine Ferraro, a high-level clinton campaign employee and former candidate for Vice President, that said, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position." No mention of how half of Americans said they would not vote for her under any circumstance and the overall disgust with the Clinton scandals.