Halperin, Mark 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born 1965. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1987.

ADDRESSES:

Office—New York, NY.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, editor. ABC News, desk assistant, researcher, 1988-92, off-air reporter, White House reporter, 1992-94, special events unit, producer, 1994-97, political director, 1997-2007, political analyst, 2007—. "The Note," daily column for ABCNEWS.com, founder and editor.

WRITINGS:

(With John F. Harris) The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008, Random House (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

A director and analyst at ABC News, Mark Halperin collaborated with fellow journalist John F. Harris on the 2006 book The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008, a how-to using the campaigning tactics of President Bill Clinton and presidential advisor Karl Rove. Drawing on interviews with Clinton, Rove, and President George Bush, the authors focus on such winning strategies as huge fund-raising, playing to the candidate's strengths, being able to navigate both traditional and new media (what the authors call the "Freak Show"), and by thorough research of constituencies and niche voters. The authors also examine the 2000 campaign of Al Gore and Bush for the presidency, looking for fatal errors in both camps. A critic for Kirkus Reviews described The Way to Win as "talking points, on-message admonitions and Machiavellian strategies for would-be presidents," and concluded that it was a "deeply cynical enterprise." A more positive assessment, however, came from Booklist contributor Vanessa Bush, who thought the work provides a "good road map for presidential aspirants," as well as "fascinating reading for the voters who will be watching the spectacle." Further praise came from a Publishers Weekly contributor who noted: "The authors' analyses are savvy and unsentimental, without collapsing into cynicism."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 15, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008, p. 8.

Campaigns & Elections, December 1, 2006, Theodora A. Blanchfield, review of The Way to Win, p. 111.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2006, review of The Way to Win, p. 767.

New York Review of Books, March 15, 2007, Michael Tomasky, "The Democrats," p. 16.

Policy Review, February 1, 2007, Peter Berkowitz, review of The Way to Win, p. 80.

Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2006, review of The Way to Win, p. 196.

Washington Monthly, July-August, 2006, Eric Boehlert, "Shill Wind"; November-December, 2006, Noam Scheiber, "Last Woman Standing: Would Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton Be Destroyed by Today's Vicious Media, or Is She the Only Democrat Who Can Survive It?," p. 37.

Washington Post Book World, October 22, 2006, Andrew Ferguson, review of The Way to Win, p. 4.

ONLINE

ABC News Online,http://www.abcnews.go.com/ (April 16, 2007), "Mark Halperin."

Huffington Post,http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (March 21, 2007), Rachel Sklar, "Halperin Out as ABC Political Director, In as ‘Political Analyst.’"

MediaMatters for America,http://www.mediamatters.org/ (November 6, 2006), Eric Boehlert, "Mark Halperin's Flip-Flop at ABC News."

Think Progress,http://www.thinkprogress.org/ (October 25, 2006), "ABC News Director to O'Reilly: Media Has Liberal Bias and ‘We've Got to Fix That.’"