The President is Missing by Bill Clinton & James Patterson

You just knew soon or later a former president would try to write a fiction story using the fate of the nation in the balance.
If it wasn't for the name of James Patterson who's books  offer some form of escape, I would not have pick it up. It would  not be because Clinton used to be president.
So, how did he do?
I felt there was too much plot--that is--too much was introduced ad later quickly resolved. Tension was followed by wrap up before fully playing out
The false promise of impeachment was no doubt heavy in his mind since he had gone through the impeachment process directly during his term. But that is not the thread that runs through the story.
A terror  involving a cyber virus pulls one through the story. How to stop it? Can it be stopped? Who put it there?
The president has a blood condition and must take medication. This is one of the tensions running through the book.
Clinton tries too hard to tell a story and therefore, if it wasn't for Patterson, I feel, this book would never have see  the light of day. It was a nice try.
It is too long for the story line. But Clinton had to try.
It can be found in a local library and at a book store if you can find one. Amazon has it and Barnes and Noble.

The Trump White House by Ronald Kessler

Wait. Before you turn away from this review because you feel it is just another poorly constructed praise job for Trump, think again.

This book is written by Kessler who for twenty years has been a friend of Donald Trump. That should be enough time to see the warts under the exterior.

This book concerns the people Trump choose to bring into the White House. It also concerns the issues he has had to face in his first year as president.

Sure, it concerns Trump. Kessler points out there are two faces to Trump. The one we see is his public face. Brash, making outrageous comments on television to get attention, a persona. The second one, the private face, is the dearest, most thoughtful, most loyal, most caring side that only insiders know.

Childhood scars. We all have some. Trump didn’t have it easy, growing up in Queens, New York. He would erupt in anger and pummel other boys or break baseball bats when he struck out. In school he often could be found in detention. He will admit that he created mischief “because for some reason, liked to stir things up, and I liked to test people.”

He seemed to have a need to be first at everything and wanted everyone else to know he was first.

We do see that in his actions today.

When he was forming his staff, he seemed to have let his family loyalties blind him. He has for some reason allowed his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared, to function on his staff.

Chief strategist Stephen Bannon has said, “They are nice people, but they don’t know anything. If their name wasn’t Trump they would be midlevel marketing managers somewhere.”.

 Neither Jared nor Ivanka have any experience in government yet they can influence his decisions. They also lack the judgment necessary to maneuver in Washington. A case in point is the firing of Comey. Both Ivanka and Jared pushed for Trump to fire Comey without understanding it would be impossible to get a new nominee through the Senate. This step Trump took opened him to the special council being formed.

Trump seems to be treating the Presidency as a business and not an office. As a businessman he would need to cower other businesses and push his brand over theirs. He doesn’t seem yet to understand how to act as a politician. Calling the leader of North Korea “Rocket Man” is not the way to gain friends and influence others.

Former president of the United States, Jimmy Carter has said, “I think the media have been harder on Trump than any president certainly that I’ve known about. I think they feel free to claim that Trump is mentally deranged and everything else without hesitation.”

Kessler with his years of knowing Trump can give us a picture and an understanding we need to fully parse this man. He used twenty-five chapters and a Prologue to do so. Chapter twenty-four is titled “Interview with The President.” This alone is a good reason to read this book.

The subtitle of this book is” changing the rules of the game.” One should read this book also to be up on what is the dream Trump has. Everyone who has ascended to the level Trump has carries with them a dream.

Random House is the publisher and the price is $29.00 retail.

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Explanation

She asks a good question. The answer is simple. She lost. She just must get over it and face the truth.  The people didn’t want her in the White House.

There is a principle I learned in my Psychology class—the more you talk about a subject trying to justify an action, the more likely it is that you are trying to convince yourself of a truth which isn’t true.

When I pick up a book written by Mrs. Clinton I get the feeling a snow job is being presented. We may never really know what happened if the only document you depend on is written by a politician. Their job, as I see it, is to snow the people. And with a history such as Hillary has going into this book, the more your snow discerner should be active.

Not that she doesn’t believe her explanation to be truth and as such only she can properly present the facts. In this book she whines (in the fourth grade I wore glasses and the children called me four eyes. That hurt.) and blames.

When the dust settles and historians in years to come research the time covered in this book, from the start to the end, the massive tomes left behind by Clinton will be one of the documents they use. Care must be taken to understand the context, the time in which it was written, and the internal factors that went into the reporting.

This seems to be a popular book. I got my copy through the library. I had to put it on the hold list and I was one of the 325 people who were waiting for one of the 26 books held by the library to be made available. So that is why I am doing this book in 2018

Reading this book, I still don’t know why she lost. What I do understand is her view of the journey. She tries to justify her deserving of the position she didn’t get. She whines and seems in shock. Ultimately, she talks about herself, and do we really need another book about Hillary?

Her chapters are long and rambling somewhat. I do notice when she talks about women she portrays them as strong, independent individuals. Most all. She may be doing this to try to present herself as a strong woman.

 In her chapter about her youth her dad is somewhat absent.

What Happened is more a justification for her than an explanation of why she fought so long and still came short of the prize. She spends a large portion on her political carrier, justifying her right to be president. She tends in portions to become a bore.

It has 464 pages and an index.

Published by Simon and Schuster.

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Crisis of Character by Gary J. Byrne

   Will the truth ever get out of what went on during the Clinton presidency? As for legacy, time will tell what was left. But there will be lots of details for future biographers to glean the facts from. But one thing is sure, people don’t charge. The past is a true indicator of the future.

   Having been a Secret Service uniformed officer serving under the Clinton’s, Gary J. Byrne ought to be able to properly inform us of what Hillary would have been as a President -- if elected in 2016.

   The Hillary we saw during the election period is not the Hillary we would have in the White House, Byrne states. He observes she simply lacks the integrity and temperament to serve in the office.

   He saw her volcanic, impulsive, and treating her secret service detail as furniture. He saw her cold yet able to play warm when it came to acceptance by crowds. But she was able to switch when crowds and cameras depart.

   She was always able to, pardon the phrase, turn shit into gold.

   Why would Byrne write another book about the Clintons? Don’t we have enough?

   The reason is, we should know what we would have gotten in another Clinton Presidency. We need to be warned about what we would have had. We would have had someone who, like her husband, Bill, doesn’t play by the rules, making them up to suit the event.  By looking at Bill’s years and Hillary’s part in them we should see a good picture of what could be with her in power.

   You can know a person by what he or she does. Hillary has a record. We need to pay attention to her actions.

   Byrne worked close to both the Clintons. He observed them as he had to protect them.

Bill Clinton was pure Teflon when it came to scandals. Byrne says President Clinton could charm a rock. Yet at the same time he treated those who were protecting him as dirt.

   “He never apologized to us,” Byrne says about the Monica Lewinsky affair. “”He never apologized for putting us in that position….Not only did he never apologized for costing the taxpayers, the Justice Department, the Secret Service, his staff, his constituents, or anyone for putting them through the ringer.

   “He wanted us to believe he was sorry for embarrassing his family, Chelsea and Hillary.”   

   Hillary in her small way is carrying on the Clinton Tradition. Her style is to deny and push the blame on to others. An example is her phrasing her opposition as “the right wing conspiracy”, if there is such a group.

   Mostly this book is about how the Clinton’s operated during their years in the White House It is all here, the scandals, the denials. The pressure this put upon the staff around them.

    Hillary has, according to Byrne a “just get it done” leadership style. Which means that she doesn’t care how a thing works. She uses plausible deniability when faced with problems. Just remember her email and her statement that it was private email-- as if anything in cyberspace is private.

   It seems to run in the family.

   I feel this book should be placed alongside the other books covering the Clintons.

   It is published by Hachette Book Group, Inc and is eighteen chapters long with an afterword.  The price is around $27.00