5 comments about Hillary's Turn: Inside Her Improbable, Victorious Senate Campaign.

1. Being neither a friend nor a foe of Hillary, I was often confused when I would ask detractors why they disliked her so much. They could often not express it. I happened across this book and read it in a very short time. The writing was compelling and kept my interest. Tomasky answered my questions about Hillary and explained how, dispite such overwhelming dislike of her, she was still able to win this election. I found his personal insights into the campaign, from having been present through the entire 18 months, to his antidotes from other reporters and sources to be explanitory and interesting, all the while keeping a balanced view of her and telling both the negative and positive aspects of her and her campaign. I highly recommend this book. It answered quite a few of my questions about this controversial politician.



2. With friends like Michael Tomasky, Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't need enemies---and God knows she has them, as we learn in excruciating detail in another book written by another reporter who should stick to quick, easily edited copy.

   Tomasky's focus on the New York press' reportage and not the subject at hand is perhaps the biggest shortcoming in Hillary's Turn. Then again, the media coverage appears to be the only aspect of the 2000 campaign that he grasped. The author's fawning, insipid descriptions of the candidate, and his one-dimensional attacks on her opponents, makes for the mirror image of an anti-Clinton diatribe, albeit more poorly written than most of those wretched screeds. Tomasky even refers to Jerry Oppeheimer's fluffy but largely sympathetic State of a Union as a hatchet job, which probably says more than will I or anyone else who reviews this pathetic "I was there" vanity project.

   Tomasky strikes me as one of those reporters whose editor accedes to demands that the copy not be changed so the public (and, importantly, management) can see how pathetic the writing really is.




3. I am not a huge fan of Hillary Clinton (nor her husband, for that matter), but I found this book to be quite enlightening in regards to her character as well as the motive for her Senate campaign. After reading this book, Hillary seems far less a tool of the liberal elite, and more a 'do-gooder' out to actually create positive change in the world. Needless to say, the future will tell if she is an effective senator, but the book details the positive reasons which led to her victorious campaign.



4. Tomasky's book will be the first and last book you need to read about the year 2000 New York Senate race. Well written, fast paced, often humorous and wonderfully insightful, Tomasky's book is both interesting and entertaining.

   Political junkies will thoroughly enjoy this book, especially with the facinating insights the book provides into the unique eccentricities of New York politics. As a New Yorker and long time observer of New York politics, Tomasky is uniquely equipped to relate Hillary's race to New York's political past and the expectations that past imposed on this race. Tomasky's book is largely about how such conventional wisdom was shattered by the unexpected outcomes of this race.

   Additionally, Tomasky's observations of the quirkiness of New York's politics is one of the most interesting aspects of the book. Tomasky shows that politics is a very different proposition in New York than much of the rest of the country. Tomasky sprinkles the book with engrossing tales of New York's political history and its personalities which makes for very colorful reading and provides more than a few chuckles.

   The downside of the book is that Tomasky seems a bit overly enamored with Hillary. Tomasky is very exhaustive in detailing Hillary's missteps in the campaign and makes clear she exercised some very poor political judgments, especially early in the race. Tomasky clearly puzzles at her lack of openness and availability to the press.

   But for the many more malignant furors that erupted during the campaign related to Hillary's ethics, Tomasky always seems to develop some alibi or another for Hillary to exhonerate her, such as when her husband issued clemency to Puerto Rican terrorists. Tomasky seems to brush off any notion that Hillary would have known about this action ahead of time because her campaign was surprised by the move. But what Hillary knew and what the campaign knew and when they all knew it may well have been two very different things. Tomasky fails to recognize this, and leaves unanswered why after years of asking for clemency President Clinton suddenly granted these terrorists their request in the middle of his wife's campaign in a state with a large Puerto Rican population.

   With all the many outstanding questions about Hillary's very checkered ethical past, Tomasky seems to dismiss these as nothing more than the product of the overactive imagination of "Hillary haters." He seems unconcerned for how Hillary's demonstrated lack of honesty and candor, as well as the many outstanding questions about her role in the Travel Office affair and shady Whitewater business dealings, effect her ability to be a trustworthy leader.

   Tomasky taxes credibility a bit by seeming more offended by the New York state GOP mentioning the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in an anti-Hillary campaign ad or Trent Lott reminding Hillary she needs to be a humble freshman Senator than he does about the demonstrated inconsitencies in Hillary's claims about the Travel Office affair that appear to be bald-faced lies.

   Additionally, Tomasky is a little overly harsh in his assesments of Lazio's campaign. While Tomasky amply demonstrates that Lazio ran a very ham-handed race, much more than I was previously aware of, Tomasky seems to have little good to report about Lazio or the race he ran.

   Despite Tomasky's obvious leanings, this book is well worth the read. I really enjoyed Tomasky's intelligent and witty writing style and were the book a little more balanced, I'd rate this book with 5 stars. But Tomasky has managed to take what could have been a very cumbersome topic and made it a breezy, readable, concise and well-told tale of one of the more interesting political races in recent memory.




5. Anytime the left wing starts with the work "fair" you know nothing is farther from the truth. Just like what slick willy put our country through was justified to the end. And then, as the Democrats always do, "it wasn't my fault..." pass the buck and pass on the book!

1 comments about Thomas Francis Meagher: The Making Of An Irish American (Irish Abroad).

1. It seems the more T.F. Meagher is written about, the more complex he becomes. Was he an adventurer, drunkard, opportunist bent on personal glory or was he an orator with few equals, a deeply committed patriot to both Ireland and the country of his adoption, the United States. Some facts we know: He was universally loved and admired by the troops he lead throughout his time as commander of the 69th Regiment - 'The Fighting Irish.'He was passionate in everything he was involved - witness his speeches throughout his career on the conflict in Ireland and in the U.S. Witness his extraordinary love letter to his future wife Libby Townsend. We know he drank but there is not one shred of evidence that he drank before or during battle. Like all individuals destined for greatness he had his detractors, including those from the Confederate side who sought to besmirch his name and reputation and those - mainly Masons, nativists and religious bigots - he encountered in his short term as Acting Governor of Montana. This book discusses all these issues in a calm, analytical way by Meagher scholars knowledgeable in the different phases of Meagher's life and career. It is a book well worth perusing, Jim Cullinane

No comments about The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family.

No comments about Legacy to Power: Senator Russell Long of Louisiana.

5 comments about Nothing But an Unfinished Song: The Life and Times of Bobby Sands.

1. All of us have a story to tell. There's few though whose life, cut short at 27 years of age, can be said to have impacted so dramatically on the course of Irish politics and to have become such an internationally recognised icon as Bobby Sands. Guerrilla fighter in the Irish Republican Army, he was elected a member of the British parliament shortly before his death on hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh/Maze Prison on 5 May 1981.
   I shared a prison wing with Bobby for nine months in 1979. Later I joined the hunger strike that he had just died on. I approached Denis O'Hearn's biography of Bobby therefore with a little trepidation. I should not have been concerned. It is an excellent book. It tells not just the story of Bobby, the prison protest and hunger strikes but accurately captures the atmosphere of the prison - the good times and bad, the hopes and despair, the pain, the joy and the totally selfless love that is rarely witnessed between a group of males. The strength of the book is that O'Hearn does not attempt to tell what he thinks happened behind prison walls (as other academics have) or to interpret events within his own ideological paradigm. Instead he facilitates others - friends, associates and comrades of Bobby - to tell of the person they knew and allows that person to become alive and vibrant on every page.
   Most importantly, the book traces the development of a very ordinary, young, politically naive, high-spirited boy from a working class background on the outskirts of Belfast to the highly politicised, articulate, prolific, competent revolutionary that he became in later years. In this way O'Hearn informs a new generation of political activists in Ireland and elsewhere that they too can become a 'Bobby Sands' but hopefully never have to make the life and death decisions that he was faced with.
   This year, the 25th anniversary of the hunger strike, it is timely for this biography to appear. It demonstrates the global interest that is retained in events that happened over a period of 217 days in 1981 when ten men died one after the other in prison cells in a struggle to be treated as the political prisoners they were. No wonder that states tremble before the power of such an idea that cannot be conquered, quenched, bought off or tortured into submission. No wonder that from the lips of oppressed peoples around the world the name, Bobby Sands, is uttered with such fondness and admiration.
   Dr Laurence McKeown, former hunger striker and co-author of 'Nor Meekly Serve My Time: the H-Block Struggle 1976-1981.
   Nor Meekly Serve My Time: The H-Block Struggle, 1976-1981



2. The life in the Northern Ireland Prison system was a horrible existence. What these men and women went through for their people is something any student of history or of the cuase of Irish freedom should know about.
   
   The details of the "Dirty Protest" are enough to make a person cry. What the British government did should never be forgotten. The author does a great job showing how Long Kesh and the H-Blocks became a school - a place where people learned what the definition of freedom really is... and how Irish freedom was just like the freedom of all colonial peoples in the world.
   
   The death of Bobby Sands and the other 9 men who followed him is a story that needs to be told again and again and again.



3. Every now and then a book comes along that can transport you inside a moment in history, or an aspect of human experience, that had seemed remote, or unimaginable, and bring it close in a way that changes how you see the world. Nothing But an Unfinished Song is such a book. If you are old enough, you probably remember the hunger strike and Bobby Sands' death, perhaps as your first awareness that something was terribly wrong in Ireland. If you are like me, your memory is colored by a sense of unreality - the dual shock of men starving themselves to death as a political statement, and of this somehow being acceptable (at least to those in power) in the latter part of the twentieth century in a country as culturally, politically, and historically close to the U.S. as Ireland. And yet, while the thought of prisoners being kept in conditions that drove them to such lengths was cause for enormous outrage, there was another source of confusion and moral discomfort. After all, these were IRA men, and the IRA was waging a military campaign. The Brits were killing people, but the IRA was too. So who were these men and what did they die for? This book is an extraordinary gift to all who asked this question. O'Hearn's exhaustive research, including interviews with many of the men who were imprisoned with Bobby, makes human and comprehensible the development of political consciousness that led Bobby from an unremarkable life to one that inspired millions. For those who continue to struggle against any form of oppression, it is as inspirational as it is heartbreaking. With truly nothing, behind prison walls, Bobby never ceased to think, learn, and create - and to strive to reach beyond those walls. Any group struggling for change must make choices about how their part of the struggle will be waged - however limited the range of possible means may be. By illuminating one moment in one struggle, O'Hearn's book offers much for all of us to ponder.



4. This is a meticulously researched and gripping biography of the hunger-striker who gave his life in the struggle for political recognition of the Republican struggle in Ireland. Bobby Sands transformed politics in Irish society and became an inspirational and internationally respected figure for his selfless political activism. He later became renowned for his transcendent poetry and rousing songs that captured key episodes in Irish history. But few knew this man intimately even as he became an icon of the Irish struggle for self-determination and a member of the British Parliament while he lay in a prison hospital.
   
   Denis O'Hearn has put this to rights in a historically informative and yet intimate account of Sands' short life that included community and military activism and a harrowing journey through a gruelling and oppressive prison system. Through sheer bloody-mindedness, mental and physical resolve, and the capacity to recognise 'opportunities' in the most brutal forms of detention, Sands changed the trajectory of Irish politics. O'Hearn reveals a character full of ceaseless energy, buoyancy, sensitivity as well as political vision in a brisk, gripping and deeply moving account of Sands' life.
   This book challenges complacency, urges activism and rejects thinking within the narrow confines of mainstream political discourse. Bobby Sands, the activist, has been revealed to a new generation and continues to inspire.



5. very good book a great life story of a irish hero

1 comments about The Life of Abraham Lincoln ( Vols. 1&2 ).

1. Before you order this book, first enlarge the photo. You will then see you are ordering only vol. three and vol. four. (You will be missing vol. one and vol. two).

No comments about The Papers of Robert A. Taft: 1949-1953 (Papers of Robert a Taft).

3 comments about On the Make: The Rise of Bill Clinton.

1. This bio of Clinton is not as easy to read as the Maraniss book; however, the effort to plough through it is well worth it. Because Oakley had covered Clinton for so many years, she offers far greater detail and insight into the inner workings of his years as governor. Sometimes she provides too much detail which, unless you are a true policy wonk, you may find tedious.

   The result is an insightful and generally balanced view of our most gifted politician who is also a complicated and enigmatic man.




2. Great Bio. Here's an excerpt from page 68. Taken from a statement made by Clinton's friend, Clifford Jackson during their student days at Oxford. " One incident stands out very clearly in my mind," Jackson said. "We were talking about politics. Bill recounted a story he told to be true. He had heard a ... staff member telling about a White House secretary walking into the Oval Office...to find Lyndon Johnson and a certain attractive young woman...engaged in sex on the Oval office floor. She was on top of the president ,and she had a peace symbol on a chain dangling between her breasts." Jackson recalled the look of amusement on Clinton's face as the anecdote unfolded." Sure..it was a funny story...but the impression I got was that Bill thought it was so neat that Johnson could get away with something like that."

   So, as I said, great book!




3. This is, next to David Maraniss' bio, the best one available. Although Oakley spends too much time glorifying Arkansas Democrat Editor John Starr, she does present a look at Clinton from his home crowd, the people who have known him longer than anyone else. At times she seems almost jealous of Clinton's success. This remains, however, a definite book to read if you want to get inside Bill Clinton's head and stroll around for a while.

No comments about The Antecedents of Nazism: Weimar : The Political Papers of Walter Landauer (Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts & Science Ser).

5 comments about The New Prince: Machiavelli Updated for the Twenty-First Century.

1. Dick Morris
   Tries mightily to bore us---
   Often on TV,
   Where he's an intellectual peewee.
   And Dick Morris
   Went with a whorris.
   His book
   Is politics with a meathook.
   He's as much like Machiavelli,
   As is Tony of the Soprani.



2. I enjoyed THE NEW PRINCE, written and read by noted political
   strategist Dick Morris.
   
   He's the guy who helped secure President Clinton's comeback victory
   in 1996 . . . here, he takes the ideas first expressed in Niccolo
   Machiavelli's THE PRINCE some five centuries ago and updates
   them for the 21st century.
   
   Though written nearly 10 years ago, it still feels so fresh that it seems
   like both of the candidates currently running for President are applying
   the ideas . . . or at least they should be.
   
   For instance, among the many tidbits that I gained from listening were
   the following:
   
   * Issue messages are more effective than image ads in getting votes.
   They're also more effective in explaining the true character of the
   candidate.
   
   * Campaigns can't win if they are based solely on a negative message.
   
   * Voters pay little attention to allegations of scandal. After Clinton's
   impeachment, his popularity rose 5%.
   
   * Voters are a lot less concerned about the abstract qualities a
   candidate may have than they are about what he will do to help them
   in their own personal lives.
   
   * People are more inclined to vote for, not against.
   
   * The art of leadership is to maintain sufficient forward motion to control
   events and steer public policy without losing public support.
   
   And this one that every politician must remember:
   
   * After you lose, nurture your donors. Act like you didn't lose. And
   smile, even though it hurts.
   
   THE NEW PRINCE is just about essential reading for any candidate,
   regardless of whether running for a national, state or even local
   School Board office.



3. This is an interesting read. Morris describes how the new political system works. Since he and his best bud Bill Clinton upset the political formula in the nineties, this was something to behold.
   This book is chock full of good advice. I can repeat them here: have a message, focus that message to the voters, forget about the undecided-they don't vote anyway, stay positive, when the election turns dirty, focus on your opponents misrepresentations, etc. I don't think Morris actually followed this advice, but hey, what do you expect from a politician.
   I think this is sage advice. The messenger was bad. Americans don't like dirty campaigns. They want the message of what a person stands for. This is a book about how a good campaign should be run. For those considering running for an elective office, this is a very good read. It is Politics 101. I just wish the author was different.



4. For many liberal Democrats like myself, Mr. Morris's plan to take the Democratic party rightward was a mixed blessing.

   On one hand, it cracked the Republican stranglehold on suburbia that hardened during the Reagan-Bush years and insulated Clinton from appearing too soft--charges that had plauged both George McGovern and Walter Mondale during their respective candidacies. On the other hand, it appropriated some of the very same imagery and concepts that people such as myself found repugnant such as overly simplistic notions of faith and family.

   Morris's observations come from a man who was in the trenches of what many people said was impossible past the 1960's--a two term Democratic adminstration that managed to retain the support of more solidly left groups on civil rights, reproductive issues and idenity politics while reaching out and embracing fiscal conservatives and moderates who would other wise believe that every democrat is uniformally of the "Tax and Spend" and "godless" variety.

   Indeed, there is a certain irony that a man who encouraged the Democratic party to downplay some of it's most distingushing principles on social policy wound up himself subject to some virtrolic character examinations following public disclosure of a political affair of his own. Although the resulting fallout did not profoundly impact his boss's success, it did damage Morris's own ability to effect political change and realignment.

   What had seemed creepy and moralizing before now appeared to be laughably hypocritical and ironically self-serving.




5. Mr. Morris' book is inspiring. I read the original Prince by Machiavelli, but it was inconclusive and difficult to apply to today's democratic standards (although there are some things that will never change). This book can be applied in all stations and situations of life, for all of these are relative.
   I believe that this is, truly, a guide to people--not just politics. It is a worthwhile read.