Review of
Instaread Summary of Clinton Cash The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and
Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich by Peter Schweizer
Three out of five stars
In this case,
the book being summarized is a very partisan attack against Hillary and Bill
Clinton as it looks more and more likely that Hillary will be elected
president. The material used to justify the attacks against the Clintons is
largely innuendo based on events that have other, more reasonable explanations.
There are several times when a “major” point is made in the summary, only to
conclude with a very weak statement.
Some examples are:
“Key Takeaway 2: Bill Clinton’s involvement in uranium
mining deals in Kazakhstan raises ethical questions.” Which contains the
sentence: “However, without a smoking gun, such accusations are difficult to
prove. Even if no impropriety occurred, Bill Clinton’s cozy relationship with
the ruler of Kazakhstan raises concerns.”
“Key Takeaway 3: The Clintons had questionable ties to
a deal in which Russia purchased uranium mining rights in the United States.”
Which contains the sentence: ” The New York Times wrote, ‘Whether the donations
played any role in the approval of the uranium deal is unknown. But the episode
underscores the special ethical challenges presented by the Clinton
Foundation…’” Hardly a powerful indictment.
“Key Takeaway 7” The Clinton Foundation has received
large donations from many people involved in corruption and violence in
Africa.” Which contains the sentence: “The Lundin Group denied all wrongdoing
and charges were eventually dropped. But the association with the Clinton
Foundation still appears unseemly to many observers.”
The author of
the summary does little in the main text to point out that no hard evidence of
any wrongdoing is ever presented and in fact much of it is internally
contradictory. Never rising above the level of “to some people it looks bad.”
It is only in
the “Author’s Perspective” section where the author of the summary performs
some critical analysis. There is the very telling section:
“Schweizer is a senior editor-at-large at Breitbart
News, a right-wing news site. During the 2016 presidential race, Breitbart
supported Donald Trump, the businessman who claimed the Republican nomination
for president in 2016. A number of Breitbart staffers even said they believed
that Trump had given the website money in return for favorable coverage.”
This summary
would have been of far higher quality if more of this critical examination had
been done in the rest of the overview.
This book was
made available for free for review purposes.
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