Candidate Hillary: From Senator to Presidential Hopeful - Softcover

"Just like "The Boys on the Bus" did a generation ago, [this book] gives us an intimate portrait of a major political campaign." -Gail Sheehy, author of "Hillary's Choice" "An entertaining, bouncy romp... an illuminating glimpse... Harpaz has written an honest book. The result is an insider's view of a female reporter grappling with a groundbreaking campaign." -The New York Times Book Review "Hilarious, knowing and lively." -The Washingtonian "Entertainingly frank." -The Chicago Sun-Times "Harpaz is a smart writer with a comic flair who captures the high silliness, the tedium, and the inanity of a long political campaign." -The Buffalo News "A charming, funny, gossipy account of life on the inside of a landmark campaign." -Columbia Journalism Review "Insightful, honest and funny." -Publishers Weekly "My dad gave me an autographed copy of [this book] when I was in high school, introducing me to a world of political reporting unlike the male-dominated one I had seen in movies and read about in other books. I felt like I was on the trail with AP journalist Beth Harpaz, and this book made me want to be a political reporter, which seemed like a far-fetched goal at the time. Today I cover the 2016 election for The Washington Post, and this book remains one of my all-time favorites." -Jenna Johnson, Reporter

Hillary is up in the polls! Hillary is down in the polls!

She's a feminist and women love her; she's an enabler and women hate her.

She's brilliant and hardworking; she's entitled and untrustworthy.

Sounds like Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2016 or even 2008 presidential campaign, right? Well, go back even farther to the year 2000 to discover how every one of those phrases was uttered during Hillary's very first campaign when she made history as the only first lady to ever run for office. That groundbreaking bid for U.S. Senate in New York made headlines around the world, coming as it did on the heels of her husband's scandalous affair with a White House intern.

Reporter Beth J. Harpaz was there, covering this political whirlwind for The Associated Press, and her book, "Candidate Hillary," previously published as "The Girls in the Van," revisits every key moment of the race. This funny, fascinating account puts you in the press van that followed Hillary from Buffalo to Brooklyn as she fought a cast of familiar characters, including New York's pugnacious Mayor Rudy Giuliani. It's filled with all the successes and missteps, the kind that plagued the assumed front-runner's 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, which instead went to a young Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. Now, updated with new perspectives from the author and an introduction by National Politics Reporter Lisa Lerer, "Candidate Hillary" offers a window into Hillary's vulnerabilities, strengths and the inner workings of the Clinton machine, all told with authority, humor and the benefit of hindsight.