Bill Who?

THREE YEARS AGO, the name Bill Clinton provoked little more than the reaction “Bill Who?” from the majority of voters, who thought—as did most political guess- perts—that President George Bush had the 1992 election sewn up. Yet today Bill Who? occupies the Oval Office, and biographers are hard at work producing life stories and analyses of him.

The best so far is First in His Class, by David Marannis of the Washington Post. It is to biography as saturation bombing is to warfare. Readers should take a deep breath before cracking this 512-page study of the Work-in- Progress from Hope, for Marannis begins at the beginning and along the way covers a cast of thousands. We’ve heard of the Friends of Bill and the Friends of Hillary; little did we know that in the collective they could fill a Cecil B. De Mille production.

AM

About the Author

Ann Lloyd Merriman

THREE YEARS AGO, the name Bill Clinton provoked little more than the reaction “Bill Who?” from the majority of voters, who thought—as did most political guess- perts—that President George Bush had the 1992 election sewn up. Yet today Bill Who? occupies the Oval Office, and biographers are hard at work producing life stories and analyses of him.

The best so far is First in His Class, by David Marannis of the Washington Post. It is to biography as saturation bombing is to warfare. Readers should take a deep breath before cracking this 512-page study of the Work-in- Progress from Hope, for Marannis begins at the beginning and along the way covers a cast of thousands. We’ve heard of the Friends of Bill and the Friends of Hillary; little did we know that in the collective they could fill a Cecil B. De Mille production.