Going Afghanistan is a journalism jargon made popular by the celebrated columnist, the late Dele Giwa. It’s a safer way to escape the boredom of politics between a 72-year-old adventurer and a 56-year-old sitting president.
When I bought the book, Blood Feud: the Clintons Vs the Obamas, in September, it was out of curiosity and the fact that I have always found Edward Klein’s books interesting.
Sometimes I doubt the depth of truth in his narratives; but above all, I enjoy the plots and relevance of discourse. The author does not write about dead issues. He is concerned about today.
Klein has a way of taking on the living in bold paints without a feel of unease. He tells his stories as though he was an unseen listener to every secret conversation.
Now if Klein’s latest work is anything to believe, then Bill (born William Jefferson Blythe III) Clinton and his wife, Hillary, must be at daggers-drawn with not only Barack Hussein Obama and his wife, Michelle, but also Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisers.
The immediate reason for their feud is the recent victory at the polls by the Republican Party whose members not only took control of the two chambers of the Congress, but also the states’ governorship. That means a lot of electoral trouble for the Clintons in 2016.
And just on Tuesday night, Wolf Blitzer, the former CNN White House Correspondent, in his programme, Wolf, announced that Jeb Bush, the junior son of the patriarch of the Bush Dynasty, has announced his intention to contest the presidency.
In American politics, it is believed that what Bush wants, Bush gets. The first and second Bushes wanted the presidency, they got it. Now the third one is on the way. It seems like there is no end to the Bush folks in the White House.
Is Bill scared by the news? Probably not! History also favours him when it comes to politics. The Clintons wield a myth of getting what they want in politics, particularly with the Obamas out of the way.
Some years ago, Bill wanted the presidency of the United States (U.S.) after serving as Arkansas governor. And he got it by kicking out the senior Bush from the White House. It’s not so easy to defeat a sitting president in the U.S.
Bill did! Bush is yet to get over the shock. What scared and still scares him most is Bill’s rhetorical strength. It comes naturally.
So, if the Clintons need the White House in 2016, even with Jeb in the race, backed by two former presidents in the family pushing and strategising, they can still get it.
Klein’s book describes Bill and Obama, the two most powerful democrats in American history, as “allies by circumstance, rivals in fact, and enemies by personal animosity”.
The book has pulled back the veil on “the jealousy and antipathy that divide the two most powerful democratic families in the country…with unparalleled reporting and access to the most sensitive sources close to the principals.”
The more than 320-page book is clearly jaw-dropping. It does not only reveal the animosity between the two big democrats but also the in-house quarrel and nasty name-callings between Bill and Hillary.
After spending eight eventful years scandalised by avoidable but unending sexual adventures and lateness to public events, Bill desperately wants to return to the White House through his wife, in 2016.
A master strategist, Bill has already drawn up the campaign plan for the big dream. He is said to be gradually building an impregnable political campaign machine through assemblage of the best Democratic political campaign brains in the U.S. He has even poached Obama’s Dream Team.
Truth is that Bill’s beautiful, electoral success-inducing speech that opened the second term campaign for Obama was stage-managed. It was based, not on love, on what Hillary could benefit from Obama’s second term in the White House.
Remember these lines: “Now, Mr. Mayor, fellow Democrats, we are here to nominate a president. And I’ve got one in mind… I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty… “I want to nominate a man who is cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside… I want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. And I proudly nominate him to be the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party.”
That was the climax of a great speech. It was his best since leaving the White House. The speech moved the Democrats to over-run America with Obama’s passion.
He spoke about the Democrats’ come-back spirit, always emerging “a little stronger and a little better…because in the end we decide to champion the cause for which our founders pledged their lives….”
Then he added the clincher: “My fellow Americans, if that is what you want, if that is what you believe, you must vote and you must re-elect President Barack Obama.”
He launched a campaign of persuasion; spiced with ideas. It took such a moving speech for Obama to roundly defeat his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, whose credentials, placed side by side with Obama’s, were crushing.
Back home, I beg you, let the campaign begin. Let the big speeches splash. Let the blame game stop. Let great ideas come forth. Win my vote! And tell me why you deserve it.
