The Girls in the Van: A Reporter's Diary of the Campaign Trail

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Summary: Finally, the inside story on Hillary's race
Review: As a New Yorker and a political junkie, I've been waiting for the inside scoop on what really went on during Hillary's campaign. Beth Harpaz has finally shed some light on one of America's most celebrated and enigmatic public figures -- and she's done so from a woman's distinct perspective.

Why do we love Hillary? Why do we hate her? Would we like her more if we knew her personally? less? Why does Hillary inspire such a range of emotions in New Yorkers and Americans? And how, after all she endured, was Hillary able to get such a plurality of New Yorkers to vote for her? Harpaz asks all the right questions, and has some inspiring and entertaining answers.

Not to mention the fact that the book is a highly enjoyable read - I couldn't put it down, and I breezed through it in one weekend.

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Summary: A Must Read!
Review: Beth Harpaz has written a wonderfully clever, beautifully written, and thoroughly entertaining behind-the-scenes look at one of the most high-profile New York campaigns in a long time.
She maintains a true reporter's neutrality, offering, for example, an intriguing perspective on how the press coverage shaped the public's view of Hillary. At the same time, she offers so much more than "just the facts, ma'am." Harpaz is willing to reveal how she struggled with the choices she made in covering the campaign and offers an often hilarious glimpse into the life of an AP reporter. What makes the book even more enjoyable are the poignant glimpses into Harpaz's own life as she struggles to balance the career demands of covering the campaign with raising a family. What a delight to read a political book that is breezy, funny, and all-together human!

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Summary: So THAT'S what it is really like!?
Review: From start to finish,I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although I had followed Hillary Clinton's campaign trail via television bites and newspaper coverage, it is through Beth Harpaz's book that I learned about the missing links -- what it was really like behind-the-scenes and behind the headlines. The author's writing style is smooth and fast paced, yet she manages to fit in an incredible amount of detail, insight and delightful (and often humorous) trivia about this historically significant race for the votes. I also enjoyed Harpaz's honest accounts of her struggle to balance a rough reporter's working schedule with her equally challenging role of mother and wife. As I read each chapter, I felt like I was peeking into the press van's windows and seeing the truly human side of this type of adventure. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Girl On The Van
Review: Having witnessed and to a very small degree participated in Hillary Clinton's 2000 senate campaign from my perch in Buffalo, I have been looking for a good chronicle and analysis of the experience. After reading both HILLARY'S TURN and THE GIRLS IN THE VAN, I am still looking. THE GIRLS IN THE VAN is breezy and interesting, but it leaves far too much out (especially most of the upstate campaign). Harpaz's book is as much or more about her experience as a reporter than the campaign itself. It wouldn't have taken much effort to turn the book into an argument about...something, but it isn't that either. Consequently, there was surprising little sense of progression for a campaign book - I wasn't looking forward to the next chapter as much as I would have liked to have been.

Campaigns lend themselves well to stories because the author doesn't need to think much about the beginning, middle and end - those are all unmistakable as the course of events unfolds. The best campaign book I've read recently was the little known, RUNNING WITH THE MACHINE, by Dan Lynch. That seemed to be about something, this one didn't. HILLARY'S TURN captures the spirit of the campaign better, but still misses much of the upstate detail. Perhaps the problem has to do with downstate reporters simply pulling together their notes rather than researching the campaign beyond what they witnessed. That may have been what happened here. There remains a really good book waiting to be written about this campaign.

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Summary: It's a diary, not a fan letter...
Review: I was asked to review this book by a local reading group interested in Women in Politics. I read it, and quite frankly, I got it. Ms. Harpaz, in journalistic fashion, wrote about her journey and her experiences on this campaign trail. That the author had quite a bit of work/life balance issues, and wrote about them in this book, is really the gist of the book and speaks to the core of the Senator's values. Whether Ms. Harpaz intended it or not, the working wife/mother "thing" is something that so many of us women share, but really can't say that we have in common with Senatory Hilary Rodham-Clinton. If you are a big fan of Hilary Clinton and are looking for all you can read, positive, on the current Senator from New York, then this book is not for you. It's far more balanced than that. If you're an open-minded working mother (whether working in or out of the home) and are interested in reading a non-biased, experience based book about Senator Clinton and how her values and ideals fit with yours (or don't), then this book is definitely for you. That Senator Clinton could be a Presidential candidate in 2008, or considered for a seat on the Supreme Court, should be of vast interest to you as a working mother and/or wife.

I didn't think the book was so negative at all, but it did spotlight a the character of the Senator. For those who hated the book, I recommend you read it without personal bias.

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Summary: Hillary Haters, You'll love this book
Review: I've been inside many local campaigns (albeit not Hillary's), and it's as a volunteer campaigner that I read The Girls in the Van. As a partisan for Hillary, I wanted to know how she did it. She pushed the First Lady envelope till it billowed and took lots of lumps for it...

The author tells quite much about several parts of it; and for some other parts you'll have to read between the lines, as on the focus groups, since reporters weren't invited to everything. I was fascinated by Hil's reach into African American churches. There are candidates who would say something nice about being Black; Governor George Wallace toured Black churches in a late reelection bid. There are candidates who would hire a Black for their staff; Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina did that. But few who are White have any clue about going beyond those trepidations and connecting deeply with the concerns and desires and feelings and histories of a group of people of whom they are not themselves born members. This book does well in painting how Hil did it.

A campaign and the press are in constant competition. Both sides have to know how to do their jobs under trying conditions. "Trying" isn't the word; at times, both fail. The candidate is trying to win and puts out the image that will help her win. The editor wants to sell papers or attract audiences, and that requires excitement, which usually requires conflict, which may not be the conflict the candidate wants. Both feel they're addressing the public's main desires; but both find different publics, and even overlapping publics demand different things from press and politics. The reporter gathers news and reports it; what editors select eventually shapes what the reporter will seek thereafter. The campaign staff tries to position photographers where all they can shoot is a candidate and a flag. (Hil's first opponent, as mayor, had a practice of detaining reporters around the corner from an event so they couldn't see anything.) The reporter tries hard to gather context; but relying on politically-motivated sources can sometimes mean being misled, a risk inherent in the profession of journalism. The candidate tries to squeeze in hordes of reporters, when she also has to do everything else. The author tells of the constant interactions, the little things, and how both sides were driven crazy (my word). Hillary's daughter was at least in college when she makes an appearance she doesn't quite know how to handle; the author's littler children interjected themselves into campaign life at not very convenient times, as young children are wont to do. For a campaigner, there are practical lessons on how to relate to the press; still, not everything is possible or necessary, as when opponent Lazio sometimes did better at meeting press needs but lost anyway.

Journalists and correspondents vary in how much they uncover and report and in how much they analyze. Here, because the medium is a wire service that sells to many newspapers, the job is to report, perhaps reporting analyses offered by political consultants and leaders but still primarily reporting, and a reporter has to stay with a viable campaign right up until the election decides the outcome. Thus, in essence, no reporter can prematurely conclude that a race is won or lost because of one debate, and leave early. Voters can; reporters can't. And voters of either gender disagree with each other; underdogs often pick up undecideds, and swing votes start out undecided. As expertly run as many campaigns are, windfalls and disasters still change outcomes. Surprises happen and a reporter must remain open to the possibilities. These are sampled across the book, as the author travels around the state on the heels of Hillary.

If being female at work seems like a matter of the past, it isn't yet. I won't select details. You'll see them crop up.

We don't elect candidates mainly for their expertise on subjects, in general. We elect them for their ability or promise to get things done, and to represent us, as if we were there ourselves. A good candidate will be reasonably expert in a selection of issues and will build on her strengths as she runs her opposition down. The author illustrates how this plays out in campaigning, how expectations are deflated or fulfilled, how the public responds when Hillary meets voters.

An advocate for issues who became a campaign manager said, If you can't change their minds change their faces, and maybe take their places. Most Americans limit themselves to voting, because they don't believe doing anything more in politics has any chance of being effective. They're wrong, as people who were deprived of the vote know perfectly well. I'd like to see more people do more to support the good politics they want to see attained, and I want the disenfranchised to get the means to reach those heights, and campaigning is one way. Campaigning is crucial to a democracy. This book, together with others and some practical experience, will help you do that.

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Summary: The Whiner in the Van
Review: Poor Beth Harpaz! Hillary didn't act like a "real" New York candidate! She wasn't available 24/7 like Al D'amato. She didn't get all chummy with the press like Chuck Schumer. And she CERTAINLY didn't give them access to her daughter like Rick Lazio. And the worst part? She didn't give them anything more than canned events to cover! By the end of the campaign, they could repeat most of her speechs along with her! In fact, she generated so little "real" news that all Ms. Harpaz can do is whine. About the lack of availability, the uncomfortable accomadations (or lack thereof), the fact that she missed spending a few nights with her own kids because she was forced to stand around hoping (usually in vain) that Hillary would talk to her.

I couldn't even finish this book! (and I assure you, I've waded through quite a bit of garbage!) Harpaz seems to despise everything about Clinton. She mocks everything from her message to her accent. And as far as working long hours, isn't that what reporters who cover campaigns do?

Do yourself a favor, if you want to find out about the Clinton campaign, go look up old NY Times articles. Don't waste your time on this book.

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Summary: I Wish She Wouldve Missed It
Review: What was I thinking reading this book? I basically just wanted a humorous and light recount of the race. Do I really care about New York politics, not really, what I am interested in is the detail of Hilary Clinton and her race. What was it like for a First Lady to run for the Senate? What I got was a book that was 1/3 complaining about long work hours, 1/3 complaining about the basics of a campaign and 1/3 complaining about Hilary. This author has every right to write a book as negative as she has about the candidate, but to be fair, I just did not get the level of dislike for Mrs. Clinton from the dust jacket as I did while reading the book. If the dust jacket would have been honist, I never would have bought the book.

To be honist with you I only completed 2/3 of the book, it got to be so repetitious with the whining and complaining that I had to put it down. I do not know if the author thought it was humorous or if this was just a 300 page diatribe about how this author disliked Hilary. If the purpose of the book was to talk about the author's dislike of Hilary then why did she cover just the minor issues she did? Lets be fair, whether they are fair or not, there are a number of bigger issues one could dredge up ... It just came off as petty. Overall I would not suggest spending the time on this book.

Rating:
Summary: I Wish She Wouldve Missed It
Review: What was I thinking reading this book? I basically just wanted a humorous and light recount of the race. Do I really care about New York politics, not really, what I am interested in is the detail of Hilary Clinton and her race. What was it like for a First Lady to run for the Senate? What I got was a book that was 1/3 complaining about long work hours, 1/3 complaining about the basics of a campaign and 1/3 complaining about Hilary. This author has every right to write a book as negative as she has about the candidate, but to be fair, I just did not get the level of dislike for Mrs. Clinton from the dust jacket as I did while reading the book. If the dust jacket would have been honist, I never would have bought the book.

To be honist with you I only completed 2/3 of the book, it got to be so repetitious with the whining and complaining that I had to put it down. I do not know if the author thought it was humorous or if this was just a 300 page diatribe about how this author disliked Hilary. If the purpose of the book was to talk about the author's dislike of Hilary then why did she cover just the minor issues she did? Lets be fair, whether they are fair or not, there are a number of bigger issues one could dredge up ... It just came off as petty. Overall I would not suggest spending the time on this book.