Rating: 
Summary: Witty and easy-to-read
Review: It would seem that the memoirs of an economics professor turned Labor Secretary would be most appropriate as material to induce sleep. On the contrary, Reich's effort elicits enjoyment and the uncontrollable urge to continuing reading past one's bedtime.His ideas are very intriguing, and his account of his time in the Labor Department is always incisive and witty. You feel his triumphs and defeats with him, and feel that he, unlike many politicians, understands that it's all just a game for them, but that life is all too real and all too difficult for millions of Americans. Read this book, and think about his ideas. Just maybe they'll change the world.
Rating:
Summary: Witty and easy-to-read
Review: It would seem that the memoirs of an economics professor turned Labor Secretary would be most appropriate as material to induce sleep. On the contrary, Reich's effort elicits enjoyment and the uncontrollable urge to continuing reading past one's bedtime. His ideas are very intriguing, and his account of his time in the Labor Department is always incisive and witty. You feel his triumphs and defeats with him, and feel that he, unlike many politicians, understands that it's all just a game for them, but that life is all too real and all too difficult for millions of Americans. Read this book, and think about his ideas. Just maybe they'll change the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Locked Out of the Loop, a Better Title
Review: Locked out of the loop would be a more apt title. Reich's infrequent wry humor is no substitute for lack of substance -- or presence. He wasn't around when the key decisions where being made, too bad
Rating:
Summary: This is one terrific read.
Review: Mr. Reich's book, Locked in the Cabinet, is really a wonderful way of looking "inside" government. He is painfully honest and painfully funny too. His assessment of the other cabinet members is interesting to read and hash over in your mind. His comments on missing his family, as he is in Washington and they are in Cambridge, are touching. Finally, his study of public policy in the areas of work is extremely educational. Mr. Reich: won't you please come back to Washington? America needs you!
Rating:
Summary: This is one terrific read.
Review: Mr. Reich's book, Locked in the Cabinet, is really a wonderful way of looking "inside" government. He is painfully honest and painfully funny too. His assessment of the other cabinet members is interesting to read and hash over in your mind. His comments on missing his family, as he is in Washington and they are in Cambridge, are touching. Finally, his study of public policy in the areas of work is extremely educational. Mr. Reich: won't you please come back to Washington? America needs you!
Rating:
Summary: Like having a well-connected uncle over for dinner
Review: Much has been written about the exaggerations and misprecisions in Reich's account. Nonetheless this is a terrifically entertaining memoir by an engaging man not afraid to poke fun at his own self. I urge anyone reading it to realize that literal retelling is not his purpose, rather to entertain his readers with some great stories that are a bit exaggerated, just like any good spinner of a yarn.
Rating:
Summary: Reich is my hero!!!!!!
Review: Not only was this book an insightful and didactic work that gave the reader an in depth look at what went on in DC during those years but, it was also amusing. Bob was self deprecating to the point of hee haw, piss in your pants hysteria. He is an idol to be worshipped. Hail Bob.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Review: Perhaps the only unassailable comment I can make about thisbook is that whether one likes it depends on one's politics going in.As a liberal (card-carrying) I found Reich's mixture of humor, irreverence, and principle delightful. He is genuinely funny, and his self-deprecation comes off sincerely. Too many political books are written just for the moment, are merely about egos, and come off like play-by-play sports commentary. The details of who said what are for the historians, who will not likely spend much time on the Clinton Administration. I wouldn't rely on Locked in the Cabinet as an accurate history, but it is a thoughtful story of liberalism-meets-lobbyists, peppered with non-shrill digressions into Reich's economic and moral musings. So the lobbyists won, big deal....
Rating: 
Summary: The non-sexual anecdotes Secretary Reich tells about
Review: President Clinton were interesting & funny yet could not offend anyone. This memoir was more enjoyable than most. It wasn't dry or bogged down with excuses or rationalizations. He did take his work seriously & was sincere about what he was trying to accomplish. He doesn't take himself too seriously & the self-deprecating humor works. He doesn't bog the reader down with dry economic theories of which he has a few. He has saved those for other books he has wriiten, (I presume). He lets you in on some of the policy-making of the Clinton administration during the first term. The object was not only to get the president's ear but to be the last one to get it. Stuff that we are not normally privy to. It is basically a pretty non-partisan memoir from one of the "good guys" in the Clinton administration.
Rating:
Summary: The Politics of Mud Wrestling
Review: Reich is absolutely brilliant and this book presents a good dollop of his wisdom. Few people in politics are driven by ideals anymore, which makes Reich's laser focus on improving economic inequity all the more laudable. And doomed.
In fact, this book explains a whole lot about how & why Clinton's first term of office became such a disappointment. "B" (as Reich, a longtime FoB, calls him) was elected with a mandate, he was young and energetic, he was idealistic and he was determined to improve the social disasters left by 12 years of voodoo economics. But he was also a classic Washington Outsider who did not have the requisite skills of playing Congress like a fiddle as FDR, JFK & LBJ had with their progressive terms. Consequently Clinton's agenda became a losing political football even under a majority Democratic Congress. When Congress passed back into Republican hands in 1994 (in large part due to Clinton's own fumbling) his effectiveness was cut off at the knees by Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America. From then on, B was in full-time CYA mode, relying on Dick Morris's polling of voters to decide all policy issues. The result -- and ultimately the indignity of the impeachment attempt -- are all too familiar and preordained. Alas Bill, we hardly knew thee...
Reich's book is fascinating, thought provoking, brutally frank and often hilariously funny. The man is a gem -- too bad politics isn't a respectable business anymore. Or was it ever?
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