My Life.Vol.2

Chapter 1

PROLOGUE

When I was a young man just out of law school and eager to get on with my life, on a whim I briefly put aside my reading preference for fiction and history and bought one of those how-to books: How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, by Alan Lakein. The book s main point was the necessity of listing short-, medium-, and long-term life goals, then categorizing them in order of their importance, with the A group being the most important, the B group next, and the C the last, then listing under each goal specific activities designed to achieve them. I still have that paperback book, now almost thirty years old. And I m sure I have that old list somewhere buried in my papers, though I can t find it. However, I do remember the A list. I wanted to be a good man, have a good marriage and children, have good friends, make a successful political life, and write a great book.

Whether I m a good man is, of course, for God to judge. I know that I am not as good as my strongest supporters believe or as I hope to become, nor as bad as my harshest critics assert. I have been graced beyond measure by my family life with Hillary and Chelsea. Like all families lives, ours is not perfect, but it has been wonderful. Its flaws, as all the world knows, are mostly mine, and its continuing promise is grounded in their love. No person I know ever had more or better friends. Indeed, a strong case can be made that I rose to the presidency on the shoulders of my personal friends, the now legendary FOBs.

My life in politics was a joy. I loved campaigns and I loved governing. I always tried to keep things moving in the right direction, to give more people a chance to live their dreams, to lift people s spirits, and to bring them together. That s the way I kept score.

As for the great book, who knows? It sure is a good story.

ONE

On Sunday, January 17, 1993 Al and Tipper Gore, Hillary, and I began inaugural week with a tour of Monticello, followed by

Bill Clinton, geboren 1946 in Hope, Arkansas, wurde mit nur 32 Jahren zum ersten Mal Gouverneur seines Heimatstaates (1979-1981) - ein Amt, das er von 1983 bis 1992 erneut innehatte. Von 1993 bis 2001 regierte er als 42. Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten im Weißen Haus. Der Träger des Aachener Karlspreises ist verheiratet mit Hillary Rodham Clinton, der im Jahr 2000 als Rrepräsentantin des Staates New York der Sprung in den Senat gelang.

"By a generous measure, the richest American presidential autobiography no other book tells us as vividly or fully what it is like to be president of the United States.... And he can write. --Larry McMurtry, The New York Times Book Review My Life is, without question, the best written U.S. presidential tome of all time.  --Douglas Brinkley, Financial Times A hell of a good story. --Frank McCourt, Entertainment Weekly It s an almost voluptuous pleasure to read Clinton when he s recounting and analyzing a political race or a legislative battle, whether it s one of his own or somebody else s. The New Yorker Consistently fascinating. --The Seattle Times Clinton talks with disarming frankness [and] writes with grace and fluidity. . . . He is also a born storyteller. --The New Republic Might just be the perfect representation of the man himself. --The Plain Dealer Clinton has many tales to tell, particularly a rich, sometimes moving account of his years before the public life, fit for future analytical historians and biographers. . . . The personal and the political are intertwined. . . . Clinton s story very much reflects the man we know. --The Nation He manages to create the distinct impression that he is sitting in the living room talking to the reader. . . . Anyone who is geninely interested in American politics will find his insights and anecdotes fascinating. . . . The book helps to elucidate the question of how he did it. --Deseret Morning News It s a saga worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, a rags-to-riches tale full of the stuff of human frailty, with a cast of hundreds, complete with low-life villians and high-minded heroes and, as such stories require, an upbeat ending. . . . The 1990s come to life once again as a time of uncommon tumult and riveting personalities. . . . The personalities on parade are as vivid as the events. --Newark Star-Ledger Tremendously interesting and entertaining. . . . Clinton s is a truly American story to which the average person