The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton.

• Author: Baer, Kenneth S.
• Position: Political booknotes: Clinton Agonistes

"JACK STANTON COULD ALSO BE A great man--if he weren't such a faithless, thoughtless, disorganized, undisciplined shit."--Primary Colors

For critics across the political spectrum, Joe Klein's character's assessment of the fictional governor of a small Southern state (who, in the film version of Primary Colors, did go on to win the White House) summed up the Clinton presidency even before Monica Lewinsky.

Liberals thought he was faithless for his stances on deficit reduction, trade, and welfare reform. New Democrats thought he was, at the very least, undisciplined (and feared he was faithless), as his obsession with a cabinet that "looked like America," focus on gays in the military, and health-care fiasco defined his first two years in office. And conservatives never once doubted Klein's evaluation, taking exception only with the contention that Bill Clinton could ever be a "great man."

Klein, a longtime Clinton-watcher and often Clinton fan, now offers a reassessment in his first nonfiction book about the Arkansas enigma, The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. A half-dozen years after Primary Colors--after a second Clinton term, an impeachment, the failure of his vice president to succeed him, the last-minute pardons, and the attacks of September 11--Klein now argues that, despite his personal failings, Clinton "had run a serious, disciplined, responsible presidency." He had a coherent political vision, real policy accomplishments, and put the country in place to weather and master the transformation to the Information Age.

Yet the disappointment lingers, but of a different kind. Even those close to the former president would admit to wondering what might have been if Clinton had been able to keep his libido in check. But in the aftermath of September 11, Klein gives voice to another regret: that this immense talent--this "natural"--"had the misfortune to serve at a time when greatness wasn't required." It's as if Michael Jordan was stuck playing in the CBA.

The Natural is no dense account of Clinton's eight years in office. Rather, Klein offers a superbly written, smart, and concise meditation on the Clinton era. For those who lived through those years, Klein's book is a welcome first volley in the battle to explain the Clinton legacy.

Klein reminds skeptics that Clinton was at the vanguard of a Democratic political and policy renaissance that not only revived the party's electoral fortunes, but also rejuvenated...