How can I remove extra whitespace from strings when parsing a csv file in Pandas?

You could use converters:

import pandas as pd

def strip(text):
    try:
        return text.strip()
    except AttributeError:
        return text

def make_int(text):
    return int(text.strip('" '))

table = pd.read_table("data.csv", sep=r',',
                      names=["Year", "Make", "Model", "Description"],
                      converters = {'Description' : strip,
                                    'Model' : strip,
                                    'Make' : strip,
                                    'Year' : make_int})
print(table)

yields

   Year     Make   Model              Description
0  1997     Ford    E350                     None
1  1997     Ford    E350                     None
2  1997     Ford    E350   Super, luxurious truck
3  1997     Ford    E350  Super "luxurious" truck
4  1997     Ford    E350    Super luxurious truck
5  1997     Ford    E350                     None
6  1997     Ford    E350                     None
7  2000  Mercury  Cougar                     None