8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An engaging and honest account of his time at Clinton's side, 8 Oct 2000
By A Customer
Stephanopoulos sprinkles the book with fascinating insights and anecdotes, revealing the world of the political aide to be an insecure one. The characters he portrays are all anxious to please and be close to the President. Clinton is revealed as a complex politician and an even more complex human being.
Well worth reading if you are interested in learning more about what Clinton is like at close-quarters and how decisions are made in modern American government.
Stephanopoulos is very honest, sometimes too honest for his own good.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Case History of "Stalled" Thinking About Governing Processes, 28 May 2004
This review is from: All Too Human (Hardcover)
This book says a lot about our governmental processes that suggests room for improvement. Most people will think about the book from a political, ethical or personal perspective, so I thought it would be helpful to consider the management lessons instead.
As portrayed in All Too Human, the Clinton administration displayed many of the most significant forms of "stalled" thinking that delay human progress. For example, decisions were often made at the last minute or delayed for months, unnecessarily (deomonstrating the procrastination stall). A contributing factor was that everyone was allowed their say, time and time again, making for a hopeless bureaucratic stall. This tendency led to little time to decide what to say about the decision after it is made so a lot of miscommunications occur (creating communications stalls). The people in the White House often did not know how they were supposed to do their jobs (contributing to a misconception stall). They were also slow to understand that the voter anger that led to the Republican success in 1994 was something they were going to have to accommodate (the result of a disbelief stall). Further, the administration did not want anyone to look too closely at controversial areas about the Clinton's past dealings (an ugly duckling stall that affected the credibility of those who defended actions that later turned out to be different than initially portrayed). Two centuries of government had also developed a lot of precedent that made lawyers and poltical advisors limit the President's choices (exhibiting the tradition stall).
Perhaps the most significant lesson is that the administration was slow to perceive that creating good processes for managing government is important. This seems related to the inexperience of many with government at the national level, and the extreme talent of the people at the top who felt confident that they could "wing it" successfully. The good news is that beginning with Leon Panetta's appointment, the White House has been learning to put more stock in management processes.
One lesson of All Too Human is that humans can learn, improve by learning from their mistakes, and go on to make great progress. That seems to have begun to happen before Mr. S. left the White House. With Robert Rubin at Treasury, we saw the contrast of a well-functioning management process.
With better government processes (to elect and to govern), we can hope for an even brighter tomorrow.
Every serious person who wants to learn how to manage better (and citizen who wants to improve a country) MUST READ THIS BOOK. This is especially timely as we enter the next presidential election campaign. I hope the candidates are asked early and often about how they will improve on the management processes described in this book. May the best process improver win!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Light reading, Easy on the Analysis, 25 Jun 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: All Too Human (Hardcover)
If you are interested in intellectual and political analysis concerning the Clinton preseidency, skip this book and read Dick Morris' Behind the Oval Office. Yes, Stephanopoulus is a smart guy with strong background in political theory and tactics. Nevertheless, his sense of strategy and the big picture are lacking.
This is a light book and if you are looking for easy summer reading this may be just for you. There's lots of tidbits from behind the scenes.
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