rxl550qpt7's Journal

After all the forgiveness Ive been given from...
After all the forgiveness Ive been given from Hillary, Chelsea, my friends, and millions of people in America and across the world, its the least I can doAs a young politician, when I started going to black churches, for the first time I heard people refer to funerals as homegoingsWere all going home, and I want to be ready

In the meantime, I take great joy in the life Chelsea is building, the superb job Hillary is doing in the Senate, and my foundations efforts to bring economic, educational, and service opportunities to poor communities in America and across the world; to fight AIDS and bring low-cost medicine to those who need it; and to continue my lifelong commitment to racial and religious reconciliation

Do I have regrets? Sure, both private and public ones, as Ive discussed in this bookI leave it to others to judge how to balance the scales

Ive simply tried to tell the story of my joys and sorrows, dreams and fears, triumphs and failuresAnd Ive tried to explain the difference between my view of the world and that held by those on the Far Right with whom I did battleIn essence they honestly believe they know the whole truthI see things differentlyI think Saint Paul had it right when he said that in this life we see through a glass darkly and know in partThats why he extolled the virtues of faith, silver handbags hope, and love

Ive had an improbable life, and a wonderful one full of faith, hope, and love, as well as more than my share of grace and good fortuneAs improbable as my life has been, it would have been impossible anywhere but AmericaUnlike so many people, I have been privileged to spend every day working for things Ive believed in since I was a little boy hanging around my grandfathers storeI grew up with a fascinating mother who adored me, have learned at the feet of great teachers, have made a legion of loyal friends, have built a loving life with the finest woman Ive ever known, and have a child who continues to be the light of my life

As I said, I think its a good story, and Ive had a good time telling it
I am particularly indebted to the many people without whom this book could not have been writtenJustin Cooper gave up more than two years of his young life to work with me every day and, on many occasions in the last six months, all nightHe organized and retrieved mountains of materials, did further research, corrected many errors, and typed the manuscript over and over from my illegible scrawling in more than twenty large notebooksMany of the sections were rewritten a half dozen times or moreHe never lost his patience, his energy never flagged, and by the time we got to the last lap, he sometimes seemed fendi b to know me and what I wanted to say better than I didThough he is not responsible for its errors, this book is a testament to his gifts and efforts

Before we began to work together, I was told that my editor, Robert Gottlieb, was the best there was at his craftHe turned out to be that and moreI only wish Id met him thirty years earlierBob taught me about magic moments and hard cutsWithout his judgment and feel, this book might have been twice as long and half as goodHe read my story as a person who was interested in but not obsessed with politicsHe kept pulling me back to the human side of my lifeAnd he convinced me to take out countless names of people who helped me along the way, because the general reader couldnt keep up with them allIf youre one of them, I hope youll forgive him, and me

A book this long and full requires a mammoth amount of fact checkingThis lions share of work was done by Meg Thompson, a brilliant young woman who carefully waded through the minutiae of my life for a year or so; then for the last few months she was assisted by Caitlin Klevorick and other young volunteersThey now have many examples of the fact that my memory is far from perfectIf any factual errors remain, it is not for lack of effort to correct them on their part

I cant thank the people at Knopf enough, beginning with fendi spy Sonny Mehta, the president and editor-in-chiefHe believed in the project from the beginning and did his part to keep it going, including giving me an amazed look wherever and whenever I ran in to him over the last two years; a look that said something like, Are you really going to finish on time?, and Why are you here instead of at home writing? Sonnys look always had the desired effect

I also owe thanks to the many people at Knopf who helpedI am grateful that the editorial/production team at Knopf is as obsessed with accuracy and detail as I am (even with a book on a slightly accelerated pace as mine was) and especially appreciate the tireless efforts and meticulous work of managing editor Katherine Hourigan; noble director of manufacturing Andy Hughes; indefatigable production editor Maria Massey; copy chief Lydia Buechler, copy editor Charlotte Gross, and proofreaders Steve Messina, Jenna Dolan, Ellen Feldman, Rita Madrigal, and Liz Polizzi; design director Peter Andersen; jacket art director Carol Carson; the ever-helpful Diana Tejerina and Eric Bliss; and Lee Pentea

In addition, I want to thank the many other people at Knopf who have helped me: Tony Chirico, for his valued guidance; Jim Johnston, Justine LeCates, and Anne Diaz; Carol Janeway and Suzanne Smith; Jon Fine; and the promotion/marketing replica chanel earrings talents of Pat Johnson, Paul Bogaards, Nina Bourne, Nicholas Latimer, Joy Dallanegra-Sanger, Amanda Kauff, Anne-Lise Spitzer, and Sarah RobinsonAnd thanks to the staff at North Market Street Graphics, Coral Graphics, and R

Robert Barnett, a fine lawyer and longtime friend, negotiated the contract with Knopf; he and his partner Michael OConnor worked throughout the project as foreign publishers joined inI am very grateful to themI appreciate the careful technical and legal review that David Kendall and Beth Nolan gave the manuscript

When I was in the White House, beginning in late 1993, I met with my old friend Taylor Branch about once a month to do an oral historyThose contemporaneous conversations helped in recalling particular moments of the presidencyAfter I left the White House, Ted Widmer, a fine historian who worked in the White House as a speechwriter, did an oral history of my life before the presidency that helped me bring back and organize old memoriesJanis Kearney, the White House diarist, left me with voluminous notes that enabled me to reconstruct day-to-day events

The photographs were selected with the help of Vincent Virga, who found many that captured special moments discussed in the book, and Carolyn Huber, who was with our family throughout our years in the Governors Mansion and the White chanel bags pink Hous