Rating: 
Summary: One of the best political books I've read in a long time!!!
Review: I don't think I've read a book that has been both as
entertaining and as helpful to my own career in public relations as this one. The style of writing is engaging, the characters are fabulous, and it was great to see the campaign
from both sides in the same book. I coudn't put it down once I started it.
Rating:
Summary: Small Arms Fire
Review: I know that this is the first book I have ever read with two senior people on the opposite sides of a presidential campaign combining on one book. As far as I know this might be the only one out there like it. Just the fact that both sides of the total campaign were discussed point by point would be enough to give this book a high rating, but these two authors (and probably the added professional writer) helped to make this book a very entertaining read. The authors struck the right balance between the exciting blow by blow of the campaign and the day to day decisions that most people would find dull. It was just so interesting reading both sides of each issue as it came up in the race. Reading how each side perceived a situation and then reacted gave the reader a rich understanding of how the campaign played out.
The one area that I found a bit annoying was the rabid partisanship of Mary Matalin. I actually thought that James Carville would be the rip it up partisan trash talker that was going to spell out the red meat attack on every issue. Now I tend to lean a little left so I at first thought it was just my liberal sensitivities getting a bit out of joint, but the more I read and tried to be fair I really got a negative view of Matalin. It is one thing to attack Clinton, heck stand in line, but the over blown attacks on average Democrats was a bit much. It just made me doubt much of what she said when balance was required and it eliminated any sympathy I should have had for her being she was on the losing side.
Another area I found interesting was how much she truly respected and adored President Bush. Now this might be a symptom of any campaign worker, but make no mistake about it, Mary held her love for the candidate front and center. With this being said it is understandable that she would take the loss hard and find some avenues to place a little blame, but her dislike of the press was only surpassed by Bill Clinton himself. Every bad decision or misstep on her side was somehow laid at the feet of the press for simply reporting the event. If Clinton was leading in the polls then Matalin made the claim the press was favoring Clinton. It got to be so pervasive that it took on the appearance of the town drunk arguing that he does not have a drinking problem. It might have been an underling factor as to why the Bush team did not pull it out at the end. Overall I really liked the book and if you are a political junkie then so will you.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Fun to Read !!!
Review: I loved the format of this book - James writes his views, then Mary writes hers and so it continues throughout the book. Very enjoyable, so fun to read about both sides of the story (or scandal as the case may be!). Being the first political book I had ever read and enjoyed, I have recommended it to friends and family members. But I still want to know---how can James and Mary stay married with such different points of view in politics????? Maybe that should be their next novel, if so I am first in line to read it!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: DISAPPOINTING
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. The authors are very intelligent and astute, with a keen political sense, and they are excellent TV commentators. I expected them to clue us in on the inside politics of the presidential election and some of the dirty politics that went on. Instead, they rambled incoherently and in a disorganized fashion. I'll never read another political book again.
Rating:
Summary: READ THIS BOOK
Review: If you are at all interested in politics, Presidential campaigns, buy and read this book! I agree with one of the other reviewers: I wish Carville and Matalin would go head-to-head again so I can read another book by both of them!
Rating:
Summary: A witty and humorous glimpse of the 1992 presidential race.
Review: In this book, James Carville and Mary Matalin involve the reader in the bowels of both Clinton and Bush's 1992 presidential campaign. This book gives a magnified view of the run for president, an especially interesting topic with the whole Lewinski scandal, and presidential elections coming up in the year 2000. I couldn't put this book down, and was sad when it was over!
Rating: 
Summary: Romance for obsessive political junkies
Review: James Carville and Mary Matalin (with a rather large assist from Peter Knobler) take the reader behind the scenes of the Clinton and Bush 1992 Presidential campaigns.The incredible behind-the-scenes details are great, and, as a Clinton supporter, it's nice to relive the highlights (Bush being followed by a guy in a chicken suit, Pat Buchanan). I don't know if Bush supporters will enjoy this book as much, although they might enjoy the Matalin sections. The only sour note comes from Matalin herself, who refers to the Clinton campaign as "Clintonistas" and continually harps about the media's (alleged) distortions of Bush and his record, and genuinely, truly seems to despise Bill Clinton. By contrast, Carville is generous to the Bush campaign. All in all, a political junkie's dream.
Rating:
Summary: For every political junkie in America
Review: James Carville and Mary Matalin are always entertaining to watch on television, no matter what they're talking about, so there was no way this book could have been anything less than massively entertaining. It works outstandingly on two different levels -- first of all, it's a blow by blow of the 1992 presidential election, with a lot of the background scuttlebutt and the inside information. You get a real sense of how disarrayed the Bush campaign was, how amazingly the Clintonistas got over some of their hassles. Secondly, though, it's a profoundly in-depth look at the way in which two people who supposedly could have nothing in common develop love, and in that sense it's very touching. James Carville's puppy-dog slavishness to Bill Clinton reads a little off-key now that Big Bill is coming to the end of his eight controversial years (Monica was still in the future when this book was written), but all in all this is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Campaign Battlefields
Review: Like the World Series or Super Bowl, Carville and Matalin bring to life the triumph and misery of campaigning. I wish I knew then what a wacko Perot was!
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT ACCOUNT OF LIFE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Review: Matalin and Carville discuss their struggles as a new couple on opposite sides of the '92 presidential election when they could hardly see one another and how they felt good for themselves when their campaign was having a good run yet bad for their partner. It also gives you great insight into the day to day pressures of a presidential campaign. This race was particularly odd given the first significant third party candidate challenge in decades. Both provide analysis and their points of view on all the key players and candidates in the 1992 election (not to mention brief tidbits on how they communicated to one another during the campaign and how they felt about one another). I think Matalin was a little harsh on Carville a lot of the time--if roles were reversed and a man said continually to his wife that he hated her, etc. (meaning it or not!) it would not go over well. I find that type of her behavior a little revolting. Carville was far more magnanimous to her than she was to him. I also did not like how Matalin described growing up a Democrat and realizing the "error of her ways" later. In particular, she relates a story in which her dad says something like "don't you feel like you work harder in school because you paid for it yourself instead of accepting loans?" and she agreed. I think its very unfair to assume people on student loans do not work hard--they have to work extra hard to pay loans back with interest when they do graduate. Its disheartening to hear the attitude that basically states that not everyone deserves a chance to go to school. All in all...It was great to see the views of both sides on a given situation and or event and it was a funny and great read.
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