“It’s very depressing. You want to read a depressing book, this is it,” said one critic of a book by Bob Woodward. “It’s a sad, horrible story with all the sordid details that I guess people will just, you know, slaver over, but the fact of the matter is, it’s humorless and there’s no warmth.”
In his criticism of Woodward’s book Wired about his friend John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd captured the essence of the Woodward writing style: lots of little trees competing for air in a gloomy forest, often at the expense of the larger picture. One can expect the same from Woodward’s’ new opus about the Trump White House, Fear. Trump in the White House.
In his two books about the Clinton White House, Woodward again did a thorough job documenting the trees, but in the second of these two books, The Choice: How Clinton Won, Woodward missed a Watergate-sized forest. To his humble credit, he later almost admitted as much.
Woodward was no Clinton fanboy. In the first of the two books, The Agenda, Woodward detailed the chaotic run-up to the budget battle in Bill Clinton’s first term. In fact, he used the word “chaos” repeatedly, even excessively.
The process “bordered on chaos.” Clinton’s schedule “was again chaos.” Clinton pushed debate “to the point of chaos.” The administration’s first week “had been chaos.” The meeting dissolved “into virtual chaos.”
In the second of these two books, this one about the 1996 election, Woodward saw a White House teetering – you guessed it – “on the edge of management chaos.” He was not the only one to spot the disarray. In his memoirs, aide George Stephanopoulos called the atmosphere of the White House “dysfunctional.” And in his memoir, labor secretary Robert Reich lamented a “chronically undisciplined president.”
What distinguishes The Choice is what Woodward missed. The Watergate reference earlier was not an exaggeration. The two years preceding the 1996 election were the most venal and treacherous in American political history, and Woodward overlooked it all.
The story begins on Election Day, 1994. “People are dazed,” wrote Reich. “No one had expected quite this.” In a time of peace and economic growth, Democrats had lost an incredible fifty-two seats in the House and eight in the Senate. MORE
“Neither Thomas nor Woodward explains why, during the campaign itself, no one in the major media chose to tell the true story.”
That was over 20 years ago. It’s only gotten worse, waaay worse.
Puck the Fress
Main Stream Democrat Media. MSDM. Since FDR beat Hoover. Woodward didn’t investigate anything during the eight years when Osmidgen was Fundamentally Transforming this country into a Third World Shithole. Do you recall that hard hitting best seller about the Benghazi disaster? Yeah, me neither. What about his exposing the secret Iranian sellout by Omohammad and Valjar? Yeah, I missed that one also. How about that best seller ripping the truth out of the Clintons and Uranium One? Yeah, I’m still waiting to read that one. Let’s see, wasn’t Woodward the first reporter to tell the country the truth about the Golden Showers Dossier? Somehow he missed that one too. He’s been missing the big stories since he got rich flogging Republicans.
“The process “bordered on chaos.” Clinton’s schedule “was again chaos.” Clinton pushed debate “to the point of chaos.” The administration’s first week “had been chaos.” The meeting dissolved “into virtual chaos.””
When fortune elevates an unworthy Arkansan to the post of leader of the free world, yet his only priority continues to be sticking his little bubba into any and every moist socket, what would you expect but chaos.
WTF is Hillary wearing? House on the Prarie?
Woodward and Bernstein, Deep-throat. So edgy for the Dan Rather/Robert Redford made up BS created and marketed between WAPO and Hollywood decades ago. In his mind what’s changed since,,, ‘cept his ego and bank account in need, betting on the dwindling “Blue Wave” to pad it out. Retire all ready and honor your son, his end of life was/is not all about you!
Yesterday a friend sent me an interesting email complete with pictures about how the woman in a man’s life makes a big different.
Donald Trump and Bill Clinton are the same age. 72 y.o.
Then there’s Milania and Hillary.
Current pictures of Donald Trump vs Bill Clinton, prove the point.
Who would want to be in the same house with Hillary?
That would be something you’d be glad later that you missed seeing.