Customer Reviews

Truth To Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself: Notes from My White House Education

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Some of these reviewers apparently have not read the book. They seem to have filed reviews for the sole purpose of ranting about Bill and Hillary Clinton. In Mr. Davis's account of his meeting with the President regarding Miss Lewinsky, his advise was to tell it all and tell it now whatever the truth is.

The bulk of his book is dedicated to the campaign finance "scandals" where he had to continually contend with other White House counsels who took the tack of not exposing their client to undue risk, often with disastrous results, such as with the White House coffees.

If you are interested in the dynamics between the White House and the press, this is the book for you.

Tell the truth, an interesting comment / policy coming from a political spin master. I had no perceptions about this book when picking it, as I had not heard anything about it. In my experience that usually means the book is rather run of the mill and dull. Well it turned out that this book is absolutely nothing like that. I really enjoyed the book. It was well written, snappy and interesting. He walks the reader through his time in the media relation's portion of the White House during the campaign finance issues and right before Monica. He does a great job of explaining what his job entailed and making it very interesting.

One thing that came to me as an extra was the details of the press and the way they work up a story. It makes you look at the new in a different light. The author detailed some of the phases to watch out for when reading a paper, which will make me trust political reporting even less. The points he raises has been one that every arm chair political junky has been yelling at the TV for years. Just tell the truth, it is always going to make it easier in the long run and eliminates the never-ending story about one little bit after another. The book is also rather positive. It is not a kiss and tell with nice bits of gossip. Overall I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the way the Clinton White House dealt with the media.

This was a slanted view of the whole Clinton mess and how his (Davis) higher moral authority should have prevailed. It is a good lesson on how to spin and what to do when you get caught. Davis need to take his own advice for he had the chance to go straight to Clinton and demand he do exactly what he advises us to do...tell the truth. Davis propped up Clinton more than anyone and has used this book to justify the many hours we all had to agonize on this creep marginalizing his own integrity for someone he deeply liked....Clinton. He should have just told us the truth and quit rationalizing his own lack of moral fortitude and posturing with reporters.

I had hope that by buying this book, I would like Davis but after reading it, I have no respect for him or his political cronies.

This book is but more of "do what I say and not what I did". Clinton and Davis let this country down.....big time!

Davis is but another Washington elite who went to an Ivy League school who thinks he is smarter and more moral than the rest of us.

Don't waste your money.....the only value in the book is the strategy they used to marginalize the moral ineptitude of Bill Clinton....a great President but a horrid man.

I just wish both of them....Davis and Clinton would go .....away! Between the two of them....you can just about sum up what is wrong with this country...a complete disconnect from the people and the whole truth.

To Davis, the truth is whatever you can say and get away with and not create "legs" on a news story. Not exactly what I wanted to read about.

The best - The best book I ever read. What else can I say about it, its the best. You learn so much from Mr. Davis. This is a book for everyone. It should be required reading in our schools. God bless Lanny Davis for writing this book.

This is a great guide to putting out the bad news first, and there was much of it during the White House tenure of Lanny Davis. Almost a companion piece to Howard Kurtz's Spin Cycle, both delve into the campaign finance scandal that still rock the Clinton White House.

Davis gives an insider account that details his failures and successes as the pointman for scandals and how he navigated between White House lawyers and politicos and learned on the job the the tradecraft needed to shape such stories.

If you liked Spin Cycle, then this is a definite must read.

This book is an attempt to cleanse Lanny of deeds he did and help engineer and then tries to wash his hands of it. Sorry, I did not fall for it and neither will anybody else with a sense of integrity. Repentance can bring forgiveness, but it does not imply immunity from punishment and a no book can do the same. Lanny's participation in under cutting the Rule Of Law cannot be dismissed in our society, the same complaints he makes in his book. When one betrays the public trust, and then lies about it, they have no respect for the public only the need to protect their own personal power. Lanny's actions and this book have contributed greatly to the debasement of our national intelligence and conscience. He only compounds it by hiding behind the crown of false pride. When he should have express his abhorrence of the entire Clinton scene both as a citizen and lawyer immediately. Instead Lanny decided to participate in this scandal as an accomplice and now brags about how he was trapped among friends and a rotting Washington. The book is a sorry attempt of an excuse and explanation, not insight into telling the truth. Telling the truth is something Lanny and minions like him have decided to intentionally avoid during this abberant episode of deceit, so far under this Presidency, and now in this book. A feeling of guilt never goes aways until you tell the whole truth regardless of the consequences. Lanny's book does not do this and he has to live with himself, we on the other hand need not read anything he has written, because why believe him now!

Lanny Davis takes you inside the spinmeisters den at the White House and tells how the news is made through leaking to the press and how the professionals blunt negative reporting about the President. Overall a quick read, but according to Lanny nothing President Clinton or Al Bore did is incorrect or wrong. Nothing at all; it is all part of the vast right wing conspiracy. I thought the lack of critical analysis shot the wheels off as a commentary, but as a how-to manual on spinning the message this a must have.

A book a little too late for the truth by someone who avoided the truth until he was caught not telling the truth. What a sad excuse for writing a book. What a sadder reason for having to even consider writing a book of this nature at all. If the President and all of his men did not lie at anytime why does one of them have to explain how he told the truth? If they told the truth why write such a book? Not worth reading, not worth buying unless you have a desire to commit crimes, lie to the public and cheat on your wife. In that case, a wonderful book for the criminal element, spouses who cheat and children who want to be like a certain President from Arkansas whose nature it is to avoid the truth. You decide if you need such a book in your life. I only judged this book and its contents, not the author and his character, that has already been decided when he avoided the truth on TV. Life goes on and this book is not necessary for anyone with a sense of integrity. One star for having the courage to tell why he avoided the truth and one star because he avoided the truth so well, Stalin, Nixon and most of Clinton's Cabinet should and would be proud!

Ever wonder how Clinton gets away with his chronic criminal behavior? How does he control the television media so it won't report the truth about him? This book will tell you. It has a spin, as you can tell by the title, but it still reveals the basics of media control. It does not, however, mention all the liberal reporters who spoke up after being blackmailed by Clinton. Nor does it mention the financial benefits Clinton gave to the three main stations (deregulation) or the promises of power in the new global government.

I gave Lanny two stars because his actions cannot be praised only given our pity. On the other hand, Lanny was forthright in explaining his mistakes of telling and giving out misinformation a tender way of saying lying. An admission of this kind of failure deserves neither recognition or commendation. But I am glad he explained it. The book only reinforced my belief that this is a President with fatal flaws of character and should have never been elected. He accomplished nothing but country club travel, cheating at golf and humiliating his wife, daughter and nation. The book shows that politics makes good people do bad things to cover failure, meanness and embarrassment. I expected more of Lanny and the entire Democratic party by having them call for Clifton's resignation when he was found lying under oath. They did not act except by saying he did not lie, well, here is the result, it will be sometime when I trust and vote for another Democrat. And here is the worse aspect from their actions and this book, I am and always will be a Democrat but no longer in the primaries. I will let them keep picking candidates with failures of nerves and then vote the other side in all general elections. It is like Moses and the Israelites, no one who worships falsehoods can enter the Promise land until that generation is dead and gone. All people who engineered this cover up of deceit to remain in power must leave before gentlemen like me return. I speak for many who read this book. This is the legacy they are leaving and none to proud. All of them need to go away for a long time, just like the book.