The Agenda: Inside the Clinton Whitehouse

Description

Working behind the scenes for the 18 months following Bill Clinton's election, conducting hundreds of interviews with administration insiders & other key officials, & gaining access to confidential internal memos, diaries & meeting notes, Bob Woodward has discovered how the Clinton White House really works. Clinton's pledge for a new economic deal was the cornerstone of his 1992 campaign, & fulfilling it has been his central ambition & enterprise as president. By focusing on Clinton's efforts to pass a comprehensive economic recovery plan, Woodward takes us not only to the highest level meetings, the hard-fought debates & the most difficult decisions but also to the very hear of this presidency--& of this man. With its day-by-day, often minute-by-minute account, it's one of the most intimate portraits of a sitting president ever published. Clinton is shown as he debates, scolds, pleads, celebrates, & rages in anger & frustration. What emerges also is a group portrait of Clinton's innermost circle of advisers in action-- including his wife, Hillary; Vice President Al Gore; Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen & the economic team; George Stephanopoulos & David Gergen & the White House staff; James Carville, Paul Begala, & the other outside political strategists; Congressional leaders; & Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan. Using his proven research method--returning time & again to key sources & relying on the paper trail of internal documentation--Woodward has assembled an extensive archive of the early Clinton presidency. This microscopic examination of the Clintons & this administration, working under pressure on the nation's most important task, reveals the deep & still unsettled conflicts among Clinton's advisers & within himself. The questions about the federal deficit, health care, welfare reform, taxes, jobs, government spending, interest rates, the roles & responsibilities of the middle class, the wealthy, & the poor are of lasting importance. How they are being answered affects each person in the country. ISBN:9780671854591