Bill Clinton’s new book: “Back to Work”

Scanning the online reviews this morning of Bill Clinton’s new book, “Back to Work,” I’m reminded first of all that it’s naïve to expect objectivity in the mainstream media and second of all, one ought not to rely on the judgment of critics in determining the merits of a new publication. Nevertheless, we can gain a little background information and a few insights from such treatises as Jodi Cantor’s piece at the NY Times: With a Book, the Last Democrat in the White House Tries to Help the Current One:

Last summer, as Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton celebrated the former president’s 65th birthday with a party at their rented Hamptons home, talk among their guests turned to President Obama’s travails over the debt crisis and doubts about his re-election. “I’m really trying to help him,” the white-haired former president said, shaking his head, “but he seems to have lost his narrative.”

Starting Tuesday, that help will take its most public form yet, in the form of a new book by Mr. Clinton, titled “Back to Work,” that makes a case for confidence in government and Mr. Obama’s jobs bill. The book marks a new and somewhat warmer stage in the two men’s rivalry and relationship, one that could benefit Mr. Obama. The awkward twist: the former president has been so frustrated at what he sees as the current one’s failure to explain his economic policies that he has literally decided to write his own version of the story. “He both sells it and wants them to sell it more,” said John Podesta, a former Clinton chief of staff who also advises the current administration.

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