The Atlantic: Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton aren't as cozy as you've been led to believe
Reporters have focused on how the former defense secretary's memoir praises her and criticizes the president. The book itself tells a different story...
-----------------------------------------
I’m thinking of teaching my journalism students about Leon Panetta’s book tour—as a case study in how to game the press.
Since Worthy Fights came out a couple of weeks ago, the headlines have been largely consistent: Hillary Clinton is terrific; Barack Obama, not so much. Panetta launched this meme with a couple of choice sentences in the book itself. Hillary, he wrote, “was a luminous representative for the United States in every foreign capital, as well as a smart, forceful advocate in meetings of the president’s top advisers.” Obama, by contrast, “relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader.”
Since then, the former defense secretary has repeatedly stoked the fire by telling interviewers things like: “These last two years, I think he kind of lost his way.” “Barack Obama does not like that process of engaging in politics, and I think that hurts his presidency.” And, most recently, Hillary Clinton “is somebody that I’ve seen who’s dedicated to this country. She’s smart, she’s experienced, and she’s tough. What the hell else do you want?” in a president.
It all makes for a pretty tidy narrative, unless you actually read the book...
... You can’t blame Panetta too much for this. Like most former administration officials, he’s trying to both vindicate his own actions and stay on the right side of powerful people (which means Hillary, the prospective president, more than Obama, the soon-to-be-former one).
Under normal circumstances, it would be a tricky balance. But it’s a lot easier when so many in the media feel entitled to sum up a book they haven’t actually read.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/leon-panetta-and-hillary-clinton-its-complicated/381500/
= new reply since forum marked as read
And the best part is, he appears to have done it inadvertently. But I've always liked Panetta and I have to wonder if it was all that inadvertent. After all he's the guy who got Petreaus to disappear himself the day after Obama won reelection in 2012, and for that neat trick alone he's earned the benefit of the doubt, at least in my book.
p.s. le rat pack, henceforth the liars club, in case anyone was wondering:
