As I mentioned earlier this week, I purchased and received the much talked about book ‘The Truth About Hillary‘ by Edward Klein. Now, if you’ve read more than one post on PunditGuy you know that I am no fan of Hillary Clinton. Even before opening to page one, I knew her to be a manipulative power hungry individual. Of course, I only really ‘know’ Hillary through the media. When we don’t know someone personally, we must base our opinion of them on what we see, what we hear them say, and a certain level of ‘gut’ instinct. I’ve always been a pretty good judge of people, and I have never been fooled into thinking that Hillary Clinton is anything like the person she portrays.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be commenting on Klein’s book, a few chapters at a time. I’m not trying to giveaway any of the juicy parts, nor am I attempting to read the book for you. I’ll treat ‘The Truth About Hillary’ like any article I read in the media. I’ll read it and give my short analysis.

So, let’s get started.

You may recall the book put out by Hillary in 2003 – ‘Living History‘. This is good Hillary.

Doesn’t she look happy? Confident? Self assured? Ready for anything! Oh yes, that’s the woman that the DNC wants you to know and love. As far as they’re concerned, this picture could replace George Washington on the $1 dollar bill. 

But Ed Klein’s book takes a different tact. This is evil Hillary.

I work in the book publishing industry, so I’m familiar with the sales power of images and text on a book cover. Sentinel, a conservative imprint of the Penguin Group, knew just what to do with Klein’s book. If you look at the front of the book and start to tilt it to the right, you’ll feel as though Hillary is peering out from around the side of the book spine, her eyes piercing you, cold and steely. This is done for obvious reasons. Klein’s book is an unflattering expose of the ugly realities that make up Hillary Clinton. Given the subject matter of the book, any good marketer would know to find a photo that exemplifies this. Sentinel found a winner. I’m sure Bill Clinton shutters each time he sees this photo. It’s a look he probably knows all too well.

The prologue opens with Monica Lewinsky showing up to Bill’s fiftieth birthday party in August of 1996. By the time I read the second paragraph, I knew what kind of book this was going to be.

Creepy.

Icky.

Klein recounts a moment when Monica, with her back turned to Bill, reaches behind her and, touches the former president, uh, well…

Yeah, I was grossed out. Straight ahead gratuitousness on the part of Klein.

Once I recovered, it was pretty clear to me who Monica Lewinsky was during this time in her life. She was a hopeless loser. She was the scorned woman, not Hillary. Klein wastes no time proving to his readers that Monica was obsessed with Bill Clinton. I’m talked OBSESSED. Over the top. If even part of the story in the prologue is accurate, Monica is lucky she wasn’t put down by Secret Service agents. Obviously, Bill wanted her kept close. 

Klein goes on to introduce us to a side of Hillary Clinton that (for me) is pretty easy to believe. She had eyes and ears all over the White House. As such, many didn’t believe for a minute that she was unaware of Monica. In fact, many believed she not only knew about the intern, she knew of her for at least two years before Matt Drudge broke the story about the salacious affair.

Page 13 outlines what one can expect from this book. According to Ed Klein, Hillary Clinton remains one of the great mysteries of our time.

• She is a mother but she isn’t maternal
• She’s a wife, but she has no wifely instincts
• She says she’s passionately in love with her husband, but many of her closest friends and aides are lesbians
• She inspires fierce loyalty among her followers, but she frequently stabs them in the back
• She professes to be a devout Christian, but she has cheated and lied at the drop of a hat

Everything about Hillary is ambiguous; everything she stands for, she stands for the opposite. She lacks the innate knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong, and the obligation to tell the truth.

(I plan to blog ‘The Truth About Hillary’ once a week until I’m finished with the book.)

7/09/05 UPDATE: OK, I lied. I intended to blog this book, weekly, but that didn’t happen. Oh yes, I did read it. The whole thing, and you know what? It was a complete a waste of time. The book is crap, pure and simple. I’m not saying that Klein fabricated anything in it. I’m just saying that what is in it won’t make a difference. It has not yet and won’t affect Hillary in the least. Most of what is in the book has already been reported elsewhere. In fact, the back of the book contains a bibliography citing the material Klein used and the list of books from other people goes on and on and on. Not much is original.

Don’t get me wrong – it was an entertaining read. It just wasn’t worth extracting.

eBay, here I come.