【India Archives】

Editor's note: This is India Archivesthe 42nd entry in the writer's project to read one book about each of the U.S. Presidents in the year prior to Election Day 2016. Follow Marcus' progress at the@44in52Twitter account and the44 in 52 Spreadsheet.

If there's one word most often used to describe everything connected to the (first?) Clinton presidency, it's "controversy" -- and that started before William Jefferson Clinton was even elected.

(And, depending on how the 2016 election turns out, that could apply to both Clinton presidencies.)

John F. Harris' The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White Housefocuses almost solely on Clinton's time in the White House. There's only a recap of Clinton's history in Arkansas, yet you don't feel like you're missing out on much.

Growing up as a teenager during the Clinton presidency, I can't say I was always focused on the ins and outs of his administration. I was 13 when he was inaugurated and 21 when he left office. Adolescence was as distracting as last weeks' historic Cubs win.

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But I doremember the feeling that Clinton was in trouble all the time. Survivorunderscores how embattled his presidency was. Much of it is on the well-trod scandals: Whitewater, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and "Troopergate," to name a few.

But there are also scandals I had either forgotten about or completely passed by my hormone-addled teenage brain. Anyone remember Clinton's nomination of Zoe Baird to serve as attorney general (nomination withdrawn after it was revealed she hired illegal immigrants for domestic services and didn't pay their social security taxes)? Or the raging controversy over the White House travel office firings, which didn't amount to much?

If there's a glaring omission in the book, it's the infamous case of Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban boy who found himself at the center of a custody battle between his relatives in Florida, who refused to give him up, and his father back in Cuba.

The Gonzalez case was a huge deal at the time -- it may even have tipped Florida to George W. Bush in the close 2000 election. But Harris doesn't mention it once.

Heightening the drama around Clinton and his presidency is the hyper-partisan nature surrounding his time in the White House. Such partisanship didn't exist, at least in such an extreme form, under Reagan or Bush; it certainly reared its head under the leadership of Newt Gingrich. (I remember the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress quite well; at the time, I was a member of my high school's Young Republicans club.)

Even reading through the constant battles Clinton fought against Republicans -- and sometimes against Democrats, even within his own administration, it's still difficult for me to fathom where this passionate hate for Clinton came from.

Partisan dislike I understand; but the deep-seated vitriol expressed towards Clinton is still hard to wrap my head around.

His infidelity, his successful evasion of the Vietnam draft, his shady business dealings: all understandable grounds for disliking a president. But it was nothing that hadn't come up with previous presidents.

Of course, it's not like Clinton helped his own cause. As each incident unfolded, the president seemed to grow more defiant -- emboldened especially after he won a second term in 1996.

That survival seemed to have enraged those who hated Clinton even more. That Clinton was impeached wasn't enough to them. And yet Clinton survived the Senate trial, and wrapped up his presidency more confident than ever.

The advent of the 24-hour news cycle certainly played into the perception of Clinton's scandals, amplifying them to a volume that no president faced before. Cable news and the nascent internet shed even more light on his worse foul-ups, and would not allow the lesser mistakes to fade.

Credit to Harris in being able to stay nuanced and balanced in his assessment of Clinton, something that can't be easy given how polarizing his presidency was. I came out of this with my opinion on Clinton still conflicted -- I acknowledge the complexity of the man, his foibles as well as his successes.

But my understanding of his presidency is better than ever -- making it easier to compare and contrast two Clinton presidencies, should Hillary win on Tuesday.

More than anything, the book reminded me that the controversies continuing to swirl around Hillary Clinton aren't necessarily new. They may be different in detail -- but here are the Clintons, again, facing a trial by fire on their way to the White House.

History repeats itself.

Days to read Washington: 16Days to read Adams: 11Days to read Jefferson: 10Days to read Madison: 13Days to read Monroe: 6Days to read J. Q. Adams: 10Days to read Jackson: 11Days to read Van Buren: 9Days to read Harrison: 6Days to read Tyler: 3Days to read Polk: 8Days to read Taylor: 8Days to read Fillmore: 14Days to read Pierce: 1Days to read Buchanan: 1Days to read Lincoln: 12Days to read Johnson: 8Days to read Grant: 27Days to read Hayes: 1Days to read Garfield: 3Days to read Arthur: 17Days to hear Cleveland: 3Days to read Harrison: 4Days to read McKinley: 5Days to read T. Roosevelt: 15Days to read Taft: 13Days to read Wilson: 10Days to read Harding: 3Days to read Coolidge: 7Days to read Hoover: 9Days to read FDR: 11Days to read Truman: 14Days to read Eisenhower: 11Days to read JFK: 10Days to read LBJ: 6Days to read Nixon: 6Days to read Ford: 4  Days to listen to Carter: 2Days to listen to Reagan: 8Days to read GWHB: 8Days to read Clinton: 9  Days behind schedule: 10