I agree that Clancy is a pretty bad writer. A hack, even. His attempts to get Jack Ryan's wife and kids into the flow of the stories are downright embarrassing. Cathy Ryan is a joke. I mean, here is Jack Ryan putting in 100+ hour weeks with the CIA and his wife somehow manages to raise perfect children while working at John Hopkins as their top eye surgeon. Yeah, right!
But he comes up with some good plot lines and his technical research is top-notch, especially with respect to military tactics and gadgetry.