The Truth About Hillary

Last updated
The Truth About Hillary
TruthAboutHillary.jpg
Author Edward Klein
Publisher Sentinel HC
Publication date
June 21, 2005
Media typeHardcover
Pages336
ISBN 1-59523-006-8
OCLC 58791057
328.73/092 B 22
LC Class E887.C55 K57 2005

The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President is a controversial political biography about Hillary Clinton, then a Democratic senator from New York, written by Edward Klein, the former editor of The New York Times Magazine.

Contents

The 336-page book ( ISBN   1-59523-006-8) was released by Sentinel HC, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), on June 21, 2005.

Controversy

Before release

The book was considered controversial due to the way it discusses various issues concerning Hillary Clinton's behavior, personality, sexuality, the nature of her marriage to Bill Clinton, and her intentions for the future. It received criticism not just from the left but from the right as well.

The author's sources were questioned by the media immediately after the release of the book. An examination of the book conducted by leftist group Media Matters for America resulted in their viewpoint that "Klein's Attack Book [was] Poorly Researched, Poorly Written, Poorly-Sourced." The media watchdog organization goes on to state that the author "recycles long-debunked claims about the Clintons" and "relies on anonymous sources for much that isn't recycled—more than 70 footnotes refer to unnamed sources," and that the book has a "reliance on 'convenient rather than complete evidence.'" [1]

Commentator Joe Conason wrote that "citizens hoping to discover anything new about the famous junior Senator from New York shouldn’t waste their time or money on his unoriginal and unreliable rant." [2]

Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton's press secretary, stated that the book was "full of blatant and vicious fabrications contrived by someone who writes trash for cash." [3]

Criticism from conservatives

To that end, Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review asked Klein, "Why on earth would you put such a terrible story in your book...that looks to be flimsily sourced at that?" regarding his suggestion that Chelsea Clinton was conceived in an act of marital rape. Columnist John Podhoretz of The New York Post stated that the book is "one of the most sordid volumes I've ever waded through." [4] According to Alicia Colon of the New York Sun , "Mr. Klein’s title led me to believe that his book would be pointing out these little hypocrisies, but instead he grovels below the belt — delving into the Clintons’ sex life, which is none of our business." [5]

With the critical response to the book being so overwhelmingly negative, some commentators on the right have speculated that the book was intentionally written as a political device to indirectly boost support for a possible 2008 presidential run by Hillary Clinton. Proponents of this theory include former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. Noonan, who also wrote a book critical of Hillary Clinton, states on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal that Klein "assumes the market is conservative and conservatives are stupid. They're not, actually. They want solid sourcing and new information that is true," concluding that this book only serves to "inoculate [Hillary Clinton] against future and legitimate criticism and revelations." [6]

Some commentators on the left feel that the nearly unanimous condemnation of The Truth About Hillary by the right may also be a well-coordinated political maneuver. Indeed, Keelin McDonel states in the centrist political journal The New Republic that "conservatives are launching a preemptive strike on what Klein identifies as one of Clinton's central mantras: 'victimhood can be a political plus.'" [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Primary Colors</i> (novel) 1996 book by Joe Klein

Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics is a 1996 book by columnist Joe Klein, published anonymously, about the presidential campaign of a southern governor. It is a roman à clef about Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign in 1992. It was adapted as a film of the same name in 1998.

David Brock is an American liberal political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. He has been described by Time as "one of the most influential operatives in the Democratic Party".

Joe Conason is an American journalist, author and liberal political commentator. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo, a daily political newsletter and website that features breaking news and commentary. Since 2006, he has served as editor of The Investigative Fund, a nonprofit journalism center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peggy Noonan</span> American pundit and author

Margaret Ellen "Peggy" Noonan, is a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986 and has maintained a center-right leaning in her writings since leaving the Reagan administration. Five of Noonan's books have been New York Times bestsellers.

"Vast right-wing conspiracy" is a phrase popularized by a 1995 memo by political opposition researcher Chris Lehane and then referenced in 1998 by the then First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton, in defense of her husband, President Bill Clinton, characterizing the continued allegations of scandal against her and her husband, including the Lewinsky scandal, as part of a conspiracy by Clinton's political enemies. The term has been used since, including in a question posed to Bill Clinton in 2009 to describe verbal attacks on Barack Obama during his early presidency. Hillary Clinton mentioned it again during her 2016 presidential campaign.

The Hunting of the President is a 2004 English-language documentary film about former US President Bill Clinton. Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton appear in archived footage. The film is based on the book The Hunting of the President: The Ten Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, written by investigative journalists Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, and published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2000. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Podhoretz</span> American neoconservative pundit (born 1930)

Norman Podhoretz is an American magazine editor, writer, and conservative political commentator, who identifies his views as "paleo-neoconservative", but only "because (he's) been one for so long". He is a writer for Commentary magazine, and previously served as the publication's editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1995.

John Mordecai Podhoretz is an American writer. He is the editor of Commentary magazine, a columnist for the New York Post, the author of several books on politics, and a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Morris</span> American political commentator and consultant (born 1948)

Richard Samuel Morris is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant.

<i>The Seduction of Hillary Rodham</i> 1996 book by David Brock

The Seduction of Hillary Rodham is a 1996 book about the early years of Hillary Rodham Clinton written by once-conservative writer, later-liberal media watch dog and Clintons supporter David Brock. The book was written during the advent of Brock's political evolution, thus contains a mixed ideological viewpoint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Sailer</span> American political writer

Steven Ernest Sailer is an American far-right writer and blogger. He is currently a columnist for Taki's Magazine and VDARE, a website associated with white supremacy. Since 2014, his personal blog, iSteve, has appeared in The Unz Review.

Edward J. Klein is an American author and former foreign editor of Newsweek, former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine (1977–1987). He has written about the Kennedys, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Donald Trump.

Gene Lyons is an American political columnist who has defended President Bill Clinton.

The term swiftboating is a pejorative American neologism used to describe an unfair or untrue political attack. The term is derived from the name of the organization "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" because of their widely publicized—and later discredited—political smear campaign against 2004 U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry. Since the 2004 election, the term has come to commonly refer to a political attack that is dishonest, personal, and unfair.

This is a list of books and scholarly articles by and about Hillary Clinton, as well as columns by her.

Aaron Klein is an American-Israeli conservative political commentator, journalist, strategist, bestselling author, and senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He served as campaign manager for several of Netanyahu's election campaigns and chief strategist for Netanyahu's 2020 election campaign that resulted in a rotating unity government with Netanyahu at the helm and his 2022 campaign in which Netanyahu won a full-term. Klein was Netanyahu's full-time strategic advisor in government from 2020 to 2021, during the period Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel's 36th government and he serves as a strategic advisor to Netanyahu during Israel's 37th government.

<i>Political Fictions</i> Essay collection by Joan Didion

Political Fictions is a 2001 book of essays by Joan Didion on the American political process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Rodham senior thesis</span>

In 1969, Hillary Rodham wrote a 92-page senior thesis for Wellesley College about the views advocated by community organizer Saul Alinsky, titled "There Is Only the Fight . . . ": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model.

"Clinton crazies" is a pejorative term in American politics of the 1990s and later that refers to intense criticism of United States President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton. The phrase refers to Clinton opponents who, according to Clinton supporters, "systematically ... sought to undermine this president with the goal of bringing down his presidency and running him out of office; and that they have sought non‐electoral means to remove him from office." Such intensity of feeling existed throughout the Clinton years, leading commentators to wonder what was at the root of it. The term was especially used in reference to people and media outlets that focused on all manner of Clinton scandals and controversies, some of which had substance behind them and some of which did not.

References

  1. Foser, Jamison (June 23, 2005). "The truth about The Truth About Hillary: Edward Klein's attack book is poorly researched, poorly written, poorly sourced". Media Matters for America.
  2. Conason, Joe (June 20, 2005). "The New York Observer". p. 5.
  3. Washington Post: Red Pencils Are Drawn Over New Clinton Book. June 21, 2005.
  4. Podhoretz, John (June 22, 2005). "Smear For Profit—New Hillary 'Bio' is Just Trash". New York Post. p. 31.
  5. Colon, Alicia (June 24, 2005). "Clinton Book May Help, Not Harm, Her". New York Sun.
  6. Noonan, Peggy (June 23, 2005). "Eine Kleine Biographie". Wall Street Journal.
  7. McDonell, Keelin (July 4, 2005). "Defense Mechanism". The New Republic. Vol. 233, no. 4720.