See Dick Run The Country

A more prosaic reason is a shared fascination with political polling. Morris and Clinton spend hours obsessing over the numbers. "He consults polls as if they were giant windsocks that tell him which way the wind is blowing," Morris writes. Led by Morris, the president's political team polls on everything, right down to where Clinton should spend his summer vacation. Martha's Vineyard is deemed too elitist; Clinton should head for the mountains because "camping out was a favorite for swing voters." Clinton dutifully obliges, though he draws the line when Morris objects to golf ("a Dole-voter activity," the consultant informs the president).

Somewhat defensively, Morris asserts that Clinton uses polls only to help him sell his policies, not to shape them. Clinton does not "flip flop," says Morris: he merely "zig-zags" toward his goal, like a sailboat tacking upwind. Morris himself refuses to be called a "spin doctor." He is concerned with "issues, not images." Readers may be unconvinced. Morris's very first advice to Clinton is to sell the invasion of Haiti as a quest for "human rights and values"--even though the real reason Clinton wants to invade the island, Morris discloses, is to stop an exodus of Haitian immigrants from flooding Florida--a key swing state.

"It's not the spin, it's the substance," insists Morris. No matter. Morris is there to save the president from " "the children who got me elected'," as Clinton derisively describes his own staff. Morris casts himself as a savant among idiots. When Colin Powell, whose possible presidential candidacy Clinton regards "with terror," decides not to run in November 1995, Morris declares that "the election is now over." He tells the president, "Congratulations, you won." The prediction, delivered 12 months before Election Day, is greeted with "astonished silence, then derisive laughter" from the other staffers in the room. Only Clinton remains silent, "having calculated that I was probably right."

Morris is supposed to be concerned with domestic politics, but that doesn't stop him from jumping into foreign affairs. Avoiding the "evil-rodent look" flashed by national-security adviser Tony Lake as they pass in the hall, Morris creates a back channel to key aides. He quotes the architect of the Bosnia peace accords, Richard Holbrooke, as declaring that without Morris's help, " "I would never have been able to get it done'."

At about this point (page 262), readers may--if they haven't already--hurl the book across the room. It's not that Morris fails to acknowledge his ego. Indeed, he blames it for his unfortunate decision to take up with a prostitute. It's just that, for all Morris's frequent allusions to psychological insight (he even names his therapist), he seems unable to see himself very clearly. After he married Eileen McGann in 1977, he writes, "I changed from a Spartan to an Athenian." Come again? The next sentence explains: "I wore suits, blow dried my hair, and began to feel my anger subsiding." (McGann, to whom the book is dedicated, has announced that she is filing for divorce.)

Morris is careful not to dish any real dirt on the Clintons. "Those who look in this book in search of illumination of the Whitewater, FBI-file, travel-office, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers and other Clinton-era scandals will find none. I'm not holding anything back. I just don't know anything," he declares. Well, maybe. Or maybe Morris would like to be invited back. He describes a somewhat pitiful call to Clinton over a month after his departure from the campaign. He leaves a message begging Clinton to call because he is "in a bad way." Perhaps out of friendship, possibly out of awareness that Morris is writing a book about him, Clinton does call. He tells Morris, " "There's nothing you have done to make me angry. I feel gratitude and affection, not anger'." Morris brightens. "I think our relationship has developed a new dimension, and I so desperately want it continued." The president's response, according to Morris, is: " "You can. It will. I will give you access to me all the time'." The White House insisted last week that Morris has no "formal or informal role as a political adviser" to the president. But if Clinton gets in trouble again, there could be a sequel.

© 1997