Clinton kicks off promotional tour for memoirs

CHICAGO – Former President Bill Clinton made the first of many public appearances to plug his forthcoming autobiography at a publishing trade show in Chicago late on Thursday.

The former president was in relaxed and expansive mood as he spoke of the “therapeutic” experience of writing his memoirs to an audience of publishing insiders at the annual BookExpoAmerica convention here. “I don’t spare myself in this book,” Clinton said of his memoirs which go on sale June 22.”I take on a lot of water, for not just the personal, but also the political errors, that I think I made.”The 900-page book, which Clinton wrote long-hand, follows his evolution from Arkansas schoolboy to Rhodes scholar and president, concluding when he leaves office in early 2000.Clinton’s last term in office was characterised by bitter partisan politics, and a sex scandal that almost ended with his impeachment, but he was at pains to diffuse expectations that he used the book to rehash old grievances.”I don’t settle a lot of scores in this book,” he repeatedly said.Instead, Clinton said he sought to look beyond the personal antagonisms to the political dynamics at work in his last tempestuous years in office.”You’ll see why Kenneth Starr really believed it was OK to apply a different set of rules to me,” he said, “and all the people that knew me, and all the people from Arkansas, and why the Congress thought it was OK to apply a different set of rules to me than they did to Newt Gingrich.”Starr was the special prosecutor who led the probe into the Clintons’ so-called Whitewater real estate deals as well as the probe into Bill Clinton’s perjury in relation to the the Monica Lewinsky affair.Gingrich is a former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives.Republican lawmakers excoriated Bill Clinton for his peccadilloes, but skated over Gingrich’s extra-marital affair.For the most part, though, Clinton said he strived to give readers a sense of the historical context of his presidency, and move past the bitter partisan politics that characterised his last days in office.”I think you’ll find my relationship with Newt Gingrich, for example, quite interesting,” he said.”You’ll see I like Bob Dole a lot and I like my predecessor President Bush (Snr) a lot and that we had these honest disagreements …”As for the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism, Clinton said he favoured “whatever we can do to eradicate al Qaeda and the terrorist networks,” but questioned whether the Patriot Act was necessary.Clinton said he sought to set his life against the larger history of America since the late 1940s.”A lot of presidential memoirs are, they say, dull and self-serving,” he joked.”I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.”‘My Life’, which comes out just four years after Clinton left office and in the midst of a highly partisan general election campaign, is widely expected to be a publishing phenomenon.The publishing house Knofp, a division of Random House, has planned a 1,5 million-copy first printing – the largest in its history.- Nampa-AFP”I don’t spare myself in this book,” Clinton said of his memoirs which go on sale June 22.”I take on a lot of water, for not just the personal, but also the political errors, that I think I made.”The 900-page book, which Clinton wrote long-hand, follows his evolution from Arkansas schoolboy to Rhodes scholar and president, concluding when he leaves office in early 2000.Clinton’s last term in office was characterised by bitter partisan politics, and a sex scandal that almost ended with his impeachment, but he was at pains to diffuse expectations that he used the book to rehash old grievances.”I don’t settle a lot of scores in this book,” he repeatedly said.Instead, Clinton said he sought to look beyond the personal antagonisms to the political dynamics at work in his last tempestuous years in office.”You’ll see why Kenneth Starr really believed it was OK to apply a different set of rules to me,” he said, “and all the people that knew me, and all the people from Arkansas, and why the Congress thought it was OK to apply a different set of rules to me than they did to Newt Gingrich.”Starr was the special prosecutor who led the probe into the Clintons’ so-called Whitewater real estate deals as well as the probe into Bill Clinton’s perjury in relation to the the Monica Lewinsky affair.Gingrich is a former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives.Republican lawmakers excoriated Bill Clinton for his peccadilloes, but skated over Gingrich’s extra-marital affair.For the most part, though, Clinton said he strived to give readers a sense of the historical context of his presidency, and move past the bitter partisan politics that characterised his last days in office.”I think you’ll find my relationship with Newt Gingrich, for example, quite interesting,” he said.”You’ll see I like Bob Dole a lot and I like my predecessor President Bush (Snr) a lot and that we had these honest disagreements …”As for the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terrorism, Clinton said he favoured “whatever we can do to eradicate al Qaeda and the terrorist networks,” but questioned whether the Patriot Act was necessary.Clinton said he sought to set his life against the larger history of America since the late 1940s.”A lot of presidential memoirs are, they say, dull and self-serving,” he joked.”I hope mine is interesting and self-serving.”‘My Life’, which comes out just four years after Clinton left office and in the midst of a highly partisan general election campaign, is widely expected to be a publishing phenomenon.The publishing house Knofp, a division of Random House, has planned a 1,5 million-copy first printing – the largest in its history.- Nampa-AFP