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Bill Clinton taped: The upcoming book

Taylor Branch's magnificent series of books on Martin Luther King is among my favorite works of modern biography. I have read the first two and have the third and final volume stored away to read soon. I very warmly recommend them to you

So I am very interested to hear that throughout Bill Clinton's Presidency, Branch was interviewing him. And he has now written a book based on the tapes.

I was aware of Branch's history with Clinton, but didn't know that he had been invited - as Arthur Schlesinger Jr was for JFK - to be a sort of house historian.

He was an excellent choice. Naturally his will be a sympathetic account. But Branch is a proper historian and both his history with Clinton and his historical interest means he will see Clinton as he should be seen - as a generational politician, a product of the 60s.

GQ has an excellent little interview with Branch here.

The Clintons are back....this time on film

For those concerned that the Clinton soap opera has retreated from the world stage, fear not.

The real deal may be busy making diplomatic gaffes and critiquing Obama from the sidelines. But Hollywood is happy to step into the breach.

It's just been announced that Julianne Moore will play Hillary to Dennis Quaid's Bill in the Peter Morgan's new film The Special Relationship.

It's not Bill and Hillary's 'special reationship' that will be playing out on centre stage though. Nor anything to do with a certain intern who will appear only in archive footage. Instead the omnipresent Michael Sheen will be reprising his role as Tony Blair.

Bill Clinton for Senate

With that convenient seat opening up in New York, rumours are already swirling about who'll take Hillary's place. Chelsea Clinton is too young to run. But there's another dynastic member available.

John Quincy Adams did it. So did Andrew Johnson. And now there's number 42. Might Bill Clinton be the latest President to return head to Capitol Hill?

Bill Clinton takes the stage at Comedy Central

Bill Clinton traded wit and wisdom with Jon Stewart last night. The clip's worth watching for the way he pulls out all the political stops on the Obama question.

And in less relevant but equally entertaining news: watch the former president expound on pies here.

You couldn't make it up...

Somebody's having some fun with the DNC playlist.

Bill Clinton marched into the auditorium last night to the strains of his old election song Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. All well and good until we got to these lyrics:

It'll be better than before. Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.

Ouch. Poor Hillary. Things got even more amusing with the inclusion of this little number in the medley after Clinton left the stage.

Might as well face it, you're addicted to love.

Bill Clinton's triumph

Bill Clinton is like marmite. You either love him or you hate him.

But his speech at the DNC last night manage to sway even his most dogged critics. Here are some of the reactions.

Andrew Sullivan:

Clinton reminded all of us of what is more broadly at stake. He did it with passion and measure and eloquence. And surpassing intelligence.

We've seen the worst of Bill Clinton these past few months, Tonight, we saw the best. And it's mighty good.

Marbury

After all that, the old bastard delivers not only a much better speech than many had feared, but the best speech of the convention to date - some are saying the best speech he's ever made.

Jonah Goldberg in The Corner:

It was the best speech of the convention so far, though that's not as high a bar as the Obama folks would probably like. Still, it was effective, supportive and vastly better delivered  than his wife's speech the night before.

Jonathan Chait in The Post:

Bill Clinton’s speech was stunningly good. Now I understand why Hillary stuck with him all these years. You can grasp at an intellectual level his pathological character failures, and yet he comes and wins you back despite it all.

Amy Sullivan in Swampland:

Well. Whether you like the Big Dog or not, he definitely brought it tonight. It's like these last 18 bitterly-fought months didn't even happen. If I were a cynic, tonight's speech might even make me wonder if all of that chatter about how ticked off Clinton was by the Obama campaign's "instructions" earlier this week was all a set-up to make the unrestrained support of Obama that much more powerful.

Bill Clinton's extraordinary election attack

Well, he's finished making snide attacks on Obama so why not go for John McCain?

Here's what Bill Clinton had to say at the Aspen Ideas Festival where it was picked up by blogger Jeffrey Goldberg:

Every living soul on this planet has some highly-justified anger. Everyone. If you know anybody who was a P.O.W. for any time, they can be going on for years and all of a sudden something will happen that will trigger all those bad memories.

Goldberg records that he said this "apropos of almost nothing".

What an extraordinary comment. And it is not hard to imagine who he was thinking of, now is it?

Temper temper

I forgot to mention this priceless report in yesterday's Times:

The latest controversy involving the former President was triggered by an article in Vanity Fair, which suggested that Mr Clinton’s heart bypass surgery four years ago had altered his personality and made him chronically angry........

Asked about the piece, Mr Clinton lost control, calling its author a scumbag, dishonest and slimy. He said it was “part of the national media’s attempt” to ruin his wife’s campaign.

That would be a yes, then.

Now 41, who do you love more? 42 or 43?

The unlikely alliance between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush may be ruffling a few familial feathers. See this fun snippet from New York Magazine:

Our favorite moment of the press conference was when a reporter asked Bush about Bill Clinton's Monday statement that the first thing Hillary would do as president would be to send Clinton and the former President Bush ("41") around the world "to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again." So, what did the current President Bush think of that?

"41 didn't think it was necessary," he laughed coldly. "Sounds like it would be a one-man trip."

Do we hear a note of tension among White House inhabitants past and present? Come on, Presidents. Share and share alike.

Alice Fishburn

Did Bill Clinton always oppose the Iraq war? Well...

Bill Clinton has been under scrutiny in the US for his claim that he opposed the Iraq war:

From the beginning

Is this true?

Allow me to help.

One of Bill Clinton's fullest early statements on the war was made here in the UK on the morning of the Commons debate that immediately preceded the conflict itself.

His argument twists and turns, before eventually asking the left to trust Blair.

But in the end it is pretty clear that he did not oppose the war from the beginning.

He blames the French and the Russians for failing to support Blair's second resolution and says that this let the diplomatic effort down. He then calls for Blair to be trusted, knowing that this was advising Labour MPs to support the war.

It is just about possible for Mr Clinton to sustain the claim that he did not support the war from the beginning but impossible on the basis of this text to maintain that he opposed it.

Read it yourself.