Customer Reviews

No One Left To Lie To

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Christopher Hitchens book on the Clinton presidency should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in modern politics. Hitchens gives a searing critique of the Clintons and the way they have practised the art of politics from their days in the governor's mansion in Arkansas up to Hilary's senate campaign in 2000. This book gets three stars because while Hitchens does make a credible case for Clinton being not only the liar we now know that he is, but also a rapist, he shows an unrelenting hostility to the Clintons that seems to me to go beyond reasonable judgement and amounts to a prejudice (although not without reasonable foundation). This is not a balanced and fair account of Bill Clinton's time in the White House that should be considered definitive (as Edward Said has said), but rather a more or less reliable account of the worst that can be said of this chapter in American history. There is more that can be said in Clinton's favour (at least as a president, if not a human being) than is said here, and this should always be kept in mind by anybody who reads this book, whatever their own political affiliation. Hitchens style is sharp and erudite, and it is a good read, but one feels that it is not the whole story.

Chris Hitchens is not only a brilliant writer he is an incredibly honest one. You might disagree with his premise (The Missionary Position) or you might think he doesn't have enough evidence to support his final conclusion (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) but no honest reader can state that he does not come to these conclusions honestly and based on facts and his conclusions from them.

This book was his first step away from the left but as he would say in it, the left stepped away from its principles by supporting Clinton who used and abused those values which Hitchens believes in.

Reading this book years after all the hullabaloo has died down gives a great insight into the operation of the Clintons now and the position of Hitchens now. His basic theme is that Clinton husband and wife were both giving lip service to the left while giving actions to the right based on their own advancement.

He asks the question out loud stating bluntly why does the right hate Clinton so since he advanced so much of the agenda. I think it is precisely for the same reason why he did. He correctly points out that those in power on the right lets many things go due to either political fear or advantage, it is quite similar to the California situation today.

As always the book is short and interesting. Don't read it at bedtime. It is not long enough to convince you to put it down till tomorrow yet too full to finish quickly and absorb it all.

Read it before you read the other defenses and attacks on the Clintons. It is the straightest one of the batch.

The book has a fatal flaw, and that is its complete, total, absolute lack of footnotes, references or bibliographies. There is no reasonable way to verify which of Hitchens' quotes are made up and which are not made up.

For instance, on page 63 Hitchens quotes George Stephanopoulos as having said "For eight months of 1995 and 1996, Morris was the president."

Now, George Stephanopoulos may in fact have said that. Then again, he may not have. No way to tell, because Hitchens cannot be arsed --to use an Anglicism-- to tell us the source.

Indeed, this book cites no sources whatever! Not one! As a work one could reference in researching President Clinton it is less than worthless.

The Clintons were quite simply the most disgusting awful, degrading people to ever sit in the white house. Hitchens who used to be a good little liberal, has finally seen the truht behind the new liberal value system, anmely that they will do whatever it takes to have power, sort of like Hitler and Stalin. Hitchens, who loves Orwell, has seen the pigs and knows that Clinton is no better then the dictators of Soviet russia. The Clintons took this country into the gutter, and forieghn countries loved it. Now liberals are whining that the world hates us. Wait, you mean blessed France and lovable China and the cute Iranians hate us, oh no. You cna judge us by our enemies, hitler hated us to, should we be worried? The CLintons and their followers made everyone laugh at us. Here they were renting out the white house, lying about what they had to drink at funraising events, lying about big things and little things, as if they just coulndt turn the lie switch off.

They had no shame and Mr. Hitchens shows the havoc they reaked. How they lied to everyone from thier own allies, the gays, to the press to the courts, about everything from sex to money. WHat kind of people did we vote for(well I dint vote form them but you might have).

Christopher Hitchen's book "No One Left To Lie To" could have been great. I've always enjoyed his entertaining style and trenchant analysis in Vanity Fair. This book, however, is a huge disappointment. There may be insightful commentary buried in here, but it is under literally bucketfuls of invective, name-dropping, and self-aggrandizing. Hitchens clearly lacks emotional distance from his subject and he comes off petulent and mean-spirited. While this book is quite short, the reading of it was as arduous a process as picking up War and Peace in the original Russian. NOT recommended.

Leading American journalist Christopher Hitchens scrutinises the features of Bill Clinton's political methods, and argues that the Clinton machine might become a model for pseudo-democracy for the coming century.

Hitchens style while appearing to be very academic and well researched has take a turn for the loosy-goosy. He intersperses far to much contemptuous language that hints at his obvious biases. This is the same man who managed to find something wrong with a saint... literally. He managed to drag mother Theresa through the mud and does the same with Bill Clinton. I don't understand why people call Hitchens "left leaning" I am not sure what he really is but he doesn't seem to be "left leaning" to me. He has some good arguments about why Clinton was a scoundrel. I am sure he could write the same about every president since Roosevelt though. Different scandals, same result. I would like to know... Does Hitch plan to write an equally scathing book about the Bush/Cheney regime? There is at least as much material already just three years into their reign.

all the facts are here but my criticism of hitchens' style of writing is that the reader has to be very familiar with his subject matter already otherwise the authour overwhelms you with so much scathing information about his subject matter. Christopher is an important journalist but after a while youy dont hear him anymore because he is so vengeful. I wish he could incorporate a more emotional style of writing so that I could 'feel' what he 'feels'.

Confirmed leftist Christopher Hitchens has penned one of the more definitive books on the dissembling first family. Also highly recommended are the late Barbara Olsen's two books on the Clintons. Both authors are thorough and enlightening, but Hitchens rules the roost when it comes to acidic, sarcastic prose! He writes with great style and proves above all that the idea of a Clinton with values is indeed an oxymoron. Excellent book, highly recommended for intelligent, discriminating readers.

Even before this book, Hitchens would appear on news panels representing the far left on PBS when Mc Neil was still on hand to present balance. I always enjoyed his comments as they combined left wing ideology, sarcasm, wit and humor. A sense of humor is sadly missing on the left. I have never seen a time when good people could be forced to drink the kool-aid for party over county.

I guess this is why Hitchens is a good lefty, but a really bad democrat. He probably voted green. Hitchens was not alone as a lefty who did not like the Clintons. The final straw must have been when Clinton bombed an aspirin factory 3 days after learning it was not a WMD plant, for the sole reason that he needed a distraction from the latest scandal.

The case is made here that all was politics for the Clintons and the word of Bill or Hillary meant nothing. The only abiding rule was, what will keep Bill in office and get Hillary elected after him.

This is not the best of the Clinton expose books, but it is a small contribution in our understanding of what has happened to the political party that I, now a recovering democrat, supported for 20 years.