cover image The Comeback Kid: The Life and Career of Bill Clinton

The Comeback Kid: The Life and Career of Bill Clinton

Charles F. Allen, Jonathan Portis. Carol Publishing Corporation, $18.95 (294pp) ISBN 978-1-55972-154-7

Allen, who formerly worked in the Arkansas State Department of Education, began this biography of the 1992 Democratic presidential nominee as a doctoral dissertation; Portis is a former editor of the Arkansas Gazette. There is nothing scholarly about this work, however, and it fails as journalism as well, given the speed of events. Having promised to focus on Clinton's education policy and its impact on the Arkansas school system, Allen and Portis handle this superficially, though their account of Clinton's and his wife Hillary's roles in instituting teacher testing and of the state's lobbying and interest-group politics may enlighten some readers. Their real concentration is on the details--none of them new--of Clinton's upbringing, his marriage, his gubernatorial elections and especially his recent history: his alleged affair with Gennifer Flowers, his draft record, his marijuana use and his performance in the candidate debates and primaries. Hillary Clinton emerges as a powerful force. Allen and Portis seem undecided, however, about whether Bill Clinton is capable of true leadership and whether he will put good policies or good politics first. The book will be of interest mainly to those who have not read a newspaper in the last eight months. Photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)