The Clinton Wars: An Insider’s Account of the White House Years By Sidney Blumenthal, Penguin, £ 20

An insider’s account of William Jefferson Clinton’s White House has to be a colourful one. But when the source of the account is Sidney Blumenthal, it is clear that it can only be a stubbornly pro-Clinton version. And those unfamiliar with the politics of the senior advisor to the ex-president take little time to figure this out while turning the pages of The Clinton Wars.

The former journalist was invited to join the White House administration as an assistant to the president at the beginning of Clinton’s second term in office. He had been close to the Clintons as a reporter, and had drawn enough flak from his editor at The New Yorker — to the extent of being asked to steer clear of the subject after he didn’t pick up the Whitewater news. That he later received an apology for this may serve as his vindication, but his stand was also enough to win him a berth in the White House communication corps.

The Clinton Wars is full of the admiration Blumenthal held for both Hillary and Bill Clinton. He makes no secret of the fact that he was personally close to both, though he was actually closer to Hillary. This he presents as a trump card. But that the intimacy stands in the way of his objectivity — if he had been indeed trying for any — is difficult to mask.

He toes Hillary’s line on the scandals that dogged the presidency, from Whitewater to Monica Lewinsky, tracing them back to operations funded by the extreme right, by people determined to bring down the Clinton’s administration and install a Republican leadership. But it reads a little too defensive. Blumenthal goes into elaborate detail about the conspiracies allegedly hatched by the right, the seeds of which, he firmly believed, lay in decades-old racial politics.

The author stays true to the title in narrating the opposition faced by Clinton at every step of the way. So even in matters of domestic policy, the focus is as much on the reforms Clinton struggled to bring about as on those who tried to stand in their way. This could have been engaging had it not read as a series of conspiracy theories. It is a pity, as Clinton’s reputation as a fine, progressive leader has managed to withstand blow after personal blow. Blumenthal’s hammering defence makes even the true ring false. His determination to paint a picture of Clinton as the perfect mix of Roosevelt’s vision and Kennedy’s charisma pushes the reader further and further away from the narrative. While discussing the Lewinsky affair, Blumenthal writes: “Even if he was lying to me about Lewinsky, I could understand. He wouldn’t have been the first man to lie to me about sex. More than one of my friends (including well-known journalists) had done so and then asked for my help afterward…” It is this sort of statement that makes it easy to doubt Blumenthal’s reasoning.

The condemnation of the media is a recurrent theme through the book. The “compliant news media” is perfect fish for the Republican scandal-mongering bait. He goes even further, pointing fingers at publications — some renowned, others obscure — accusing them of either being funded by the right or depending too much on sources like Kenneth Starr. This again could have been convincing, with the American media facing increasing accusations of partisanship, had it not come across as a bitter, personal tirade. True, Clinton’s scandals would not have overshadowed his strong leadership as it did at times without the help of the media, but Blumenthal does not hesitate before discrediting those who tried to discredit Clinton, pulling out the same weapons (namely dirty laundry) that he accused them of using.

The Clinton Wars may serve as a useful tool to students of current affairs, as Blumenthal packs the pages with facts. But it is not a reliable tool on its own. It reads too much like propaganda for the information to be taken in isolation. Real admirers of Clinton will have to wait for an objective account of eight fascinating years of modern American history.