The Clinton Charisma: a Legacy of Leadership
Donald T. Phillips
Palgrave Macmillan, 246pp, £15.99
Bill Clinton wasn’t just the first black president. He also beat his wife to become the first female commander in chief. So it is according to The Clinton Charisma, which roots Clinton’s extraordinary connection with people and his leadership prowess in supposedly feminine qualities. This Bill Clinton is genuinely interested in what others have to say. He starts open conversations and keeps them going with open questions. He equally makes time to socialise in congress and at random diners his motorcade passes. This is set against the macho posturing and certainty of Bush.
The Clinton presidency almost bursts at the seams with ideas, conversations, trips and schemes. Clinton is memorably quoted in it as saying the White House is either the best public housing in the US or the jewel in the crown of its prison system. He doesn’t want to be closeted away. He is a man who wants to be in touch. Not just with policy experts but also with the felt experience of everyday life.
This is a book that fits (uneasily) between management literature, and the almost pious tales of presidents’ lives, designed to improve young minds. But it does have deep resonances now for a British political audience.
First, it shows that each time Clinton was in trouble – and premature reports of his political death were legion – he reached out more. Instead of bunkering he increased his hunger for new ideas and new views. This is a man who was thrown out first time by voters in Arkansas, who bombed at the Democratic convention in 1988, whose campaign almost imploded in 1992, who suffered appalling ratings in his first years, who was almost impeached. And yet he ended his presidency on a huge high.
Second, and less edifyingly, the descriptions of the manoeuvres against Clinton, culminating in the Starr report, are put in italics alongside the timeline of the presidency. It’s hard to escape the feeling that the politics of then and there are increasingly the politics of here and now. The politics of personal destruction have become yet more common here. Accusations of graft, knavery and character flaws are everywhere. Perhaps it’s time to learn the art of survival from a master. When in trouble in the capital, get out and meet the real people.