Klein is associated with the "third way" Democratic centrism that saw its peak with Bill Clinton's election and presidency. Generally sympathetic to the establishment, Klein gave limited support to many of President Bush's policies and now does the same for President Obama. Never one to shy from a fight, Klein is as likely to challenge those on the left as he is those on the right. He has sparred with members of nearly every ideological tribe in Washington, from civil libertarians to Israel hawks, as part of his quest to marginalize the fringe movements he sees as widening the ever-growing partisan divide.

Klein has worked as a columnist for Newsweek and as Washington editor for The New Yorker. He gained widespread fame when Primary Colors, the roman a clef on the inner workings of the 1992 Clinton campaign that he wrote under the name Anonymous, captured the attention of Washington. Although occasionally critical of the Clintons, such as when he accused Bill of committing an "unwitting sabotage" against his wife's presidential campaign and of being a "one-man supermarket tabloid," Klein has continued to defend the pair since they left the White House, going on the offensive against Hillary Clinton's many critics in the media in 2008.