An Amazing Adventure
Joe and Hadassah's Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaign
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- $34.99
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking memoir featuring the personal recollections of former Senator Joe Lieberman and his wife, Hadassah, of their 2000 vice presidential campaign.
From the second they find out that Joe had been chosen by Al Gore as his running mate, the Liebermans' lives drastically changed—privacy vanished as political handlers took over. Now, Joe and Hadassah recount the excruciating vetting process, the exhilaration of the Democratic National Convention, the tension of the debates, and finally, the drama of Election Day and of the contentious weeks that followed. Thrilled to be running in a national campaign that they regarded as immensely important to the national purpose, and profoundly moved by the audiences that came to see and hear them, the Liebermans nevertheless admit that it was a complicated and demanding experience.
The Liebermans' voices alternate throughout the book as they describe the excitement, their sense of the honor of being chosen, the extraordinary and sometimes exhausting demands, and the satisfactions and joys of the hard-fought campaign they waged as a team. Woven throughout this inspirational but cautionary tale are the Liebermans' opinions, including their take on Joe's being the first Jewish vice presidential candidate and on Hadassah's debut to a national public as a first-generation American and child of Holocaust survivors.
An Amazing Adventure is an honest, high-spirited, revealing, and ultimately optimistic book from the candidate and his wife on the American way of running for national office.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Readers expecting political insights, in-depth policy analysis or entertaining and gossipy insider information about the 2000 presidential election will have to look elsewhere than this diary-like account. Instead, the former Democratic vice-presidential candidate and his wife avoid any risk of controversy and offer a politically safe recounting of the campaign that does double duty as a preview of the centerpiece themes of a potential 2004 Lieberman run at the presidency. The narrative begins when Senator Lieberman learns he is on the short list of candidates and continues through the wrenching loss of Florida's electoral votes. The Liebermans alternate impressions, sometimes describing the same event. Suffice it to say there is no Rashomon-style disconnect, but rather unabashed and uninformative praise by each for the other. Hadassah Lieberman's view is the more novel, as she describes how the scrutiny that follows elevation to the national stage takes over her wardrobe, her personal routines and her natural voice as she is encouraged and cajoled by her campaign staff to "stay on message." The Liebermans are observant Jews, and their discussions on the role of religion in their lives and in American politics are thoughtful. But in the end this is a frustrating effort, as the Liebermans skate the surface of issues, content to wrap what could have been an interesting and dramatic insider story in a surfeit of praise for each other, Al Gore, their staffs, the Secret Service and all things American. Photos.
