John Dean reviews Robert Rubin's book
John Dean reviews Robert Rubin's new book at this FindLaw site. Dean highlights the contrasts between the view of Bush presented in former Treasury Secretary O'Neill's recent book, and the view of Clinton in Rubin's book. He points to Rubin's discussions of the deficit and probabilistic decision making as also worthwhile. Look for a link to a 1998 New York Times Rubin profile by Jacob Weisberg (co-author of the book under review here). At the time, Rubin was still Treasury Secretary.
Dean describes the picture of Clinton that emerges from the Rubin book:
- "...By way of comparison, Rubin reports Bill Clinton's involvement in the details of developing policy, his appreciative listening to all the alternatives, his decisionmaking, and his ability to give his staff constant guidance as to what he wanted. Clinton became involved in economic policy during the post-election transition, and his active role continued throughout his presidency.
Typical was the post-inaugural period, where Rubin reports several weeks of meetings "to set the exact levels of deficit reduction, priorities for the allocation of budgetary resources, and the specifics of our tax proposal. Clinton remained intensely involved in the specifics." With the first Clinton budget, the president became so immersed in the details that he was able to make easy and fast decisions during the subsequent years.
In Rubin's book, the Clinton team's brainpower and acumen are apparent -- whether they are devoted to policy development, or to several major economic crises, in Mexico, Russia and Asia. Even when Clinton was being battered by the investigation of Independent Counsel Ken Starr, and the Congressional impeachment drive to oust him, Rubin reports, Clinton continued to show an amazing ability to focus his intellect on problems. He was never disengaged, never bored.
For instance, Rubin notes that "at a moment when the Lewinsky problems were at their height �, [w]e all sat around the table at Blair House, and [Clinton] led the discussion [of the Russian default on its foreign debt] as if nothing else were going on in the world. It was a remarkable seminar on the many aspects of the problem..."
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