Product Description

George Stephanopoulos's memoir of life on the campaign trail and inside the White House has been widely praised as one of the most insightful political memoirs of our time. It is at once an eyewitness account of unprecedented historical events and a compelling revelation of the American political process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #235384 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Here it is--the long-awaited story of the young staff member of the Clinton White House who shared an unusually close relationship with the president... no, no, not her.

Without George Stephanopoulos, it's possible that Bill Clinton might never have been elected in 1992, and he was rewarded for his campaign work with a senior adviser's position. From that unique vantage point comes All Too Human, perhaps the first genuinely anticipated political memoir from Clinton's presidency. --Amazon.com

Customer Reviews

Case History of "Stalled" Thinking About Governing Processes
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!

A book for the gullible, the partisan fanatic, and the idle.
This is a sad, self-revealing portrait of a young man who suffered a mental breakdown while trying to be a part of Washington politics. Those who believe that this is a valid account of President Clinton's administration will believe anything from any source that suits them.

Frightening look behind closed doors of a sitting president
After reading this book, the spin control and presidency by popular opinion polls made a great deal of sense to me. I could not believe I was reading about "the stuff" that has gone on and continues to go on with our president while he is still in office. Mr. Stephanopoulos was very brave to release this information while Mr. Clinton continues as president. I hope and pray that our president has turned around and folks such as Mr. Morris no longer have their hooks in him. Doing what is morally and ethically right in any situation is not always going to be the popular thing to do. I believe this book revealed the author's desire to be honest about the Clinton White House, and I look forward to the day when we get the honest truth w/o spin from Mr. Clinton himself. I respected the restraint Mr. Stephanopoulos used in his writing because it was very clear to me that he could have written so much more about the many "gates" that have occurred since 1992. The White House needs a good spring-cleaning and a new era of truthfulness. The last line of the book was very sobering indeed!