Background and career
Sidney Stone Blumenthal (born November 6, 1948) is an American journalist, political operative, and Abraham Lincoln scholar. A former aide to President Bill Clinton, he is a long-time confidant of Hillary Clinton, and was formerly employed by the Clinton Foundation. As a journalist, Blumenthal wrote about American politics and foreign policy. He is also the author of a multivolume biography of Lincoln, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln. Three books of the planned five-volume series have already been published (A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel, and All the Powers of Earth), and subsequent volumes were planned for later. Blumenthal has written for publications such as The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, for whom he served for a time as the magazine's Washington correspondent, and was, briefly, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Salon. He is a regular contributor to the openDemocracy website and is a regular columnist for The Guardian.
Blumenthal was born in Chicago to Claire (née Stone) and Hyman V. Blumenthal. His father was Jewish, while his mother was Protestant Christian. He became involved in politics at age 12 as a courier for a local Democratic Party election precinct captain. Hearing John F. Kennedy reference The New York Times during a campaign rally he attended prompted him to begin reading that paper regularly. He earned a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University in 1969. While there, he joined the Students for a Democratic Society.
After graduation, Blumenthal began his career in Boston as a journalist for the underground paper Boston Phoenix and The Real Paper. Blumenthal was part of a generation of New Left journalists who eschewed objectivity in favor of taking sides. He blamed journalistic detachment for Ronald Reagan's presidential victory. Geraldine Baum wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "In Blumenthal's writings, Democrats stood for goodness and progress, Republicans for darkness and defeat."
In 1983, Blumenthal became the chief national political correspondent for The New Republic, covering the 1984 United States presidential election. Soon after, Blumenthal began working as a political reporter for The Washington Post before then returning to The New Republic. Blumenthal played a major role in Gary Hart's bid for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. Although Hart's bid was ultimately unsuccessful, Blumenthal wrote a speech that was considered a positive "turning point" that established Hart's viability, while also writing a cover story on Hart in The New Republic-- while not disclosing to the magazine's readers he advised Hart and wrote speeches for him. Discomfort with Blumenthal's political involvement contributed to The Washington Post reassigning him to its "Style" section.
In 1993, Blumenthal became the chief Washington correspondent for The New Yorker before joining the Clinton Administration in the summer of 1997. Not too long into the job at The New Yorker, Blumenthal was replaced by Michael Kelly, although Blumenthal stayed on as a part-time writer. Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post wrote that "Kelly ordered Blumenthal to stay away from the magazine's downtown office", and Kelly himself explained to the newspaper: "I did not trust [Blumenthal]. I felt his relationship ... with the president and first lady was such that I was not sure I wanted him around the office as I was working on stories. He was serving two masters, and I was not comfortable with that. ... I had reason to believe that he wanted a job with the White House." According to Kelly, "He took a column that had a well-deserved reputation and turned it into a vehicle for the Clintons and for denouncing their enemies." Over time, Blumenthal was eased out of his job. Kurtz wrote that "The New Yorker assignments dwindled", and Blumenthal not long after officially went to work for the Clinton White House.
Blumenthal served as assistant and senior advisor to Bill Clinton from August 1997 until January 2001. His roles included advising the President on communications and public policy and serving as liaison between the White House and former colleagues in the Washington press corps. He later became a central figure in the grand jury investigation that ended in the impeachment of President Clinton. While working for Clinton, Blumenthal was known for his loyalty to the Clintons. He was also known for his often baseless attacks on their political adversaries, including Barack Obama when he ran against Hillary Clinton to be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president. This was the primary reason Rahm Emanuel, the first chief of staff for President Obama, barred Blumenthal from a position in the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
