All too human, my political education by George Stephanopoulos (1999)

It’s been many years since the last days of the Clinton Administration. Reading All too human by George Stephanopoulos is like get a heartfelt postcard from the past. A past, which is now a dim memory, that lingers like the residue of a dream. As a friend put it, the 90’s were the party, and now we are living the hangover.

Reading All too human, I felt the sensations of living 15 years ago. I thought, could it really be that long ago? Bill Clinton was the first President that I had really experienced from start to finish.

Stephanopoulos is not referring Clinton being all too human, but himself. It is good title because the book is a retelling of his years with Bill Clinton in a intimate narrative, which sounds almost like a therapy session. It more of how George Stephanopoulos dealt with the situations that came before him, which were the situations that ailed the Clinton Whitehouse. George takes you right through, how much he felt and knew at the time, how he dealt with it, felt about that, and finally what he thinks and feels about it later, which may sound like any memoir, but I can assure that I have been through many and it certainly isn’t. In a way George sounds like he is unloading a guilty conscious; justifying himself; giving corroborating evidences. At other times, it sounds like a love letter to Bill Clinton. What can be sure is that it is both heartfelt and rational writing of an experience that went from Jennifer Flowers to Monica Lewinski. In the end, he becomes his own person, less of a defender of Clinton based on awe, and rather he becomes more realistic in his loyalty to the President. It is a story of growth at it’s core.

I found that Stephanopoulos account of the role Hillary Clinton to be on the same page as the Carl Bernstein book on her, A Woman in Charge.

George Staphanopoulos graduate from Columbia University, where he was a visiting professor. He gave the commencement speech for the college during my time at Columbia. From that experience, I can say that he sound like a Columbia kid. He has that New York Ivy League persona that has lead so many from 116th street and Broadway to Washington. FDR went to the law school at Columbia, and there has never been a session of congress without a Columbia graduate.

I really did enjoy this book. I wish it were more updated as it was written in 1999; almost ten years ago. But I did like two things very much about it. It was terse and emotionally honest. I googled the book and found that some reviews blasted him for being self serving. I didn’t see it that way. I saw a narrative that was as honest as he could be with himself. The book neither, raised or lowered my opinion of Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton. Instead, it reminded me why I feel the way I do about them in the first place.

I bought this book for a dollar on Amazon. It’s not a bad look at the Clinton years. As a young person during those years it was hard to not see George Stephanopoulos as someone you could relate too, generally because he looked too young to be there.