Very admiring look at HRC's time as Secretary of State. Useful insights into the department and Hillary's (tough-minded) role in reshaping it. My attention wandered towards the end. Much ado about 2016. ( )

Books about politics and politicians are sometimes hard to judge on their own merits. Authors can take up the task of writing a book to make their case to support or condemn an individual, and readers may like or hate a book depending upon whether the tone is consistent or opposite to their starting bias. So in the case of Jonathan Allen's book "HRC", I was first curious to see if Allen was a known supporter or opponent of Hillary Clinton. All I saw, before I began this book was that Bloomberg News has hired him to cover the White House and Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential bid in 2016, and that he most recently served as Politico’s White House bureau chief. That sounded neutral enough to make me think I might get an independent take on Hillary's background, something I'd be curious about before the 2016 presidential election and her possible candidacy.

Note that this book is NOT a complete biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, starting with her youth, her family story, college days, or early days with Bill, her efforts in national health care, or days as a U.S. Senator. It's primarily a story starting with her Presidential Primary battle with Obama in the 2008 election, and then focuses mostly of her time as Obama's Secretary of State.

My assumption is that if you liked Hillary before starting this book, you'll like her as much or more when you're done. And if you disliked Hillary before starting this book, it's not likely to make you change your mind. And if you're on the fence about Hillary, and her viability as a likely choice for the Democratic Party Candidate for President in the 2016 election, you may well end up with a more positive view of her capability for the Nation's top office by the time you finish Allen's book. Allen provides a generally positive review of her capability and performance.

There have been questions raised over the past year or two about her performance as Secretary of State and in her culpability in the deaths of the U.S. diplomat and security personnel in Libya after the attack in Benghazi, and Allen spends a fair amount of time focusing on this event. Allen's take is that any requests for additional security in Benghazi never reached her level, and were handled by professional staffers well below her level, and that there was no deliberate cover-up by the Administration. And that's certainly not the view of many in the G.O.P.

One of the surprises for me when reading this book was that California Congressman Darrell Issa, a frequent critic of the Administration and Chariman of the House Oversight Committee, apparently did not believe any blame could rightly be place on Hillary's performance as Secretary of State regarding the Benghazi tragedy. Another surprise for me was Allen's reference to General David Petraeus, (once rumored to be a possible GOP candidate against Obama), stating that in his opinion, she'd make a great President.

Not surprising to me was the references to the seedy side of politics included in this book. You'll be reminded of that fact as soon as you start reading "HRC". The petty side of loyalty to party over principle is seen early on. But Allen does give us a glimpse as to what type of manager, administrator, and executive Hillary has been in her past twenty years of Government service, and that should be of interest to those of us likely to vote in the next presidential election. ( )

Don't go in thinking you're going to learn a lot about Hillary Clinton's foreign policy; you'll learn more from [b:The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power|15794108|The Secretary A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power|Kim Ghattas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439818077s/15794108.jpg|21653640] about her philosophy and governing principles if that's what you're interested in. But this is a fascinating account of the internal politics of the four years she served as Obama's Secretary of State. ( )

Crooked Hillary is here described in regards to the Obama versus Clinton controversy. Although this is a laudatory biography it is clear that Hillary had little to contribute to foreign policy. She had minor success in obscure places such as Burma. She comes across as a War hawk and a tireless campaigner but she has reached her limits as an effective administrator. She was burned out by the time she became the nominee in 2016.

Don't go in thinking you're going to learn a lot about Hillary Clinton's foreign policy; you'll learn more from [b:The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power|15794108|The Secretary A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power|Kim Ghattas|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439818077s/15794108.jpg|21653640] about her philosophy and governing principles if that's what you're interested in. But this is a fascinating account of the internal politics of the four years she served as Obama's Secretary of State. ( )