Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Blumenthal
Sidney Stone Blumenthalis an American journalist, activist, writer and former political aide. He is a former aide to President Bill Clinton; a long-time confidant to Hillary Clinton; and a journalist, especially on American politics and foreign policy. He was editor of several departments and wrote for several publications including The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. After 2000, he published several essays critical of the administration of President George W. Bush...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth6 November 1948
CountryUnited States of America
I did not urge or encourage any reporter to investigate the private life of any member of Congress. Any suggestions otherwise are completely false.
Every decision that they take has enormous consequences, and ripple out from the White House.
Dick Clarke, who was head of counter-terrorism in the National Security Council, pushed constantly for the Principals Committee, which is the key national security group of top officials to take up the issue of terrorism.
The biggest mistakes, early on, involved foreign policy and involved the strategy for health care.
At the same time, Clinton was doing a lot things right, like the economy.
On health care, virtually every political error that could be made was made.
The book shows Clinton in the presidency as a profile in growth.
It wasn't simply that Clinton created the greatest prosperity in the country's history. Or that we created 22 million new jobs, more than ever before. Under Clinton, poverty was reduced 25%.
The Democrats need to remind people of where were, in terms of our progress, as markers against where we are, and where we've fallen, and how we've declined under Bush.
What happened to the Bush Administration regarding terrorism is that they regarded it as a secondary issue, and associated with Clinton. One of those Clinton issues.