The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Biography - Hardcover

Milton, Joyce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688155014 ISBN 13: 9780688155018

Publisher: William Morrow, 1999

Synopsis

In 1998, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the most admired woman in America while also becoming the most visibly wronged wife in the world. Standing by her husband, President Bill Clinton, as she and the nation learned the truth behind the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the First Lady assumed two roles--dutiful spouse and passionate defense attorney--which she had played on numerous occasions during the course of their tumultuous yet politically unified relationship.

Now esteemed biographer and journalist Joyce Milton examines this formidable, fascinating woman, giving probing insight into the First Lady's character, her values and her career. In The First Partner, Milton goes behind the scenes at the Clinton White House and explores the First Lady's involvement in Travelgate, Filegate, the Health Care Task Force fiasco and fund-raising for the 1996 presidential campaign, showing how these controversies grew out of the tensions in her political partnership with Bill Clinton. Milton also describes how Mrs. Clinton's defensive reactions to her husband's chronic infidelities have often misfired and have sometimes enabled his bad behavior. She examines the differing psychologies of the President and First Lady, yet shows that when faced with political accusations, they take a similar approach of telling only as much of the truth as is necessary--a reaction that has increasingly gotten them into trouble.

Meticulously reported and researched, The First Partner offers keen new understanding of this complex woman who has infuriated and confounded as many people as she has inspired.

About this title

Review:

Hillary Rodham Clinton is a touchstone for a generation. Supporters view her as a feminist icon, detractors as an enabler for her husband's constant philandering--and as someone with her own dangerous political agenda. The First Partner is a well-written, well-researched, and insightful biography in which Joyce Milton fully considers her subject's many contradictions. Hillary Rodham's upbringing was as stern and demanding as her husband's was loose and adoring. She has always provided discipline; he, charm. Milton concludes that the first lady's "most significant public accomplishment by far" has been "saving Bill Clinton from political ruin" by standing by him and stage-managing behind the scenes on numerous occasions.

Those who crave sensational tidbits will not be disappointed by the book's "greatest hits" recap of the various Clinton scandals: the suggestion that Bill Clinton used drugs when he was governor; that the Clintons considered divorce; the alleged affair between Hillary and Vince Foster; her use of profanity with Secret Service agents; the banning of Barbra Streisand from the White House; the "kitchen coup"; the pornographic Christmas ornaments; the failure to credit her collaborator on It Takes a Village--not to mention Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Chinagate, and Monicagate. Milton claims that whenever there is trouble, Hillary Clinton can usually be found right in the middle of it, but that she consistently denies involvement, expecting friends and employees to cover up for her. Perhaps Milton's most valuable contribution in The First Partner, though, is to take a hard look at HRC's liberal ideas and politics going back to her college days, including the groups to which she has belonged and the people with whom she has associated. An understanding of these views, obviously strongly held, will become increasingly important and relevant when evaluating Hillary Rodham Clinton's political character during--and after--her husband's presidency. --Linda Killian

About the Author:

Joyce Milton is the author of Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin and several other books. She is also the coauthor of The Rosenberg File. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0688155014
• ISBN 13: 9780688155018
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 435