James Carville
(born October 25, 1944) is an American political consultant, commentator, actor, attorney, media personality, and prominent liberal pundit. Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Carville was a co-host of CNN's Crossfire
until its final broadcast in June 2005. Since its cancellation, he has appeared on CNN's news program, The Situation Room
. As of 2009, he hosts a weekly program on XM Radio titled 60/20 Sports
with Luke Russert, son of Tim Russert who hosted NBC's Meet The Press
. He is married to Republican political consultant Mary Matalin. In 2009, he began teaching political science at Tulane University. [1]
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JAMES CARVILLE TICKETS
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Early life and education
Carville, the oldest of eight children, was born
Chester James Carville, Jr.
[2] at
Fort Benning, Georgia, the son of Lucille (
née Norman), a former school teacher who sold
World Book Encyclopedias door-to-door, and Chester James Carville, a postmaster as well as owner of a general store.
[3] He has
Irish and
Cajun ancestry. James Carville was raised in
Carville, Louisiana,
[4] and attended
Ascension Catholic High School in
Donaldsonville, Louisiana.
[5]
He graduated from
Louisiana State University with
undergraduate and
law degrees.
Early career
Before entering politics, Carville worked as a
litigator at a
Baton Rouge law firm from 1973–1979, spent two years serving in the
United States Marines, and worked as a high school
teacher.
Prior to the Clinton campaign, Carville and consulting partner
Paul Begala gained other well-known political victories, including the
gubernatorial victories of
Robert Casey of
Pennsylvania in 1986, and
Zell Miller of
Georgia in 1990. But it was in 1991 when Carville and Begala rose to national attention, leading appointed incumbent
Senator Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania back from a 40-point poll deficit over
White House hand-picked candidate
Dick Thornburgh. Also noteworthy is that Wofford's campaign was where the "
it's the economy, stupid" strategy used by
Bill Clinton in 1992 was first implemented.
Bill Clinton's 1992 Presidential campaign
In 1992, Carville helped lead Bill Clinton to a win against
George H. W. Bush in the Presidential election. In 1993, Carville was honored as Campaign Manager of the Year by the
American Association of Political Consultants. His role on the Clinton campaign was documented in the feature-length Academy Award-nominated film,
The War Room
.
One of the formulations he used in that campaign has entered the language, derived from a list he posted in the war room to help focus himself and his staff, with these three points:
# Change vs. more of the same.
#
The economy, stupid.
# Don't forget health care.
Political/Media work
After 1992 Carville stopped working on domestic campaigns, stating that he would bring unneeded publicity, but he has worked on a number of foreign campaigns, including those of Prime Minister
Tony Blair of the
United Kingdom,
Ehud Barak of
Israel's
Labor Party, and the
Liberal Party of Canada. In 2002, Carville worked as a
Greenberg Carville Shrum (GCS) strategist to help American-educated Bolivian
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada win the presidency in
Bolivia which was portrayed in a documentary
Our Brand Is Crisis.
thumb
press conference in 2006
In 2004, he was brought in for last-minute consulting on
Senator John Kerry's Presidential campaign, but he did not play a major role.
In 2005, Carville taught a semester of the course "Topics in American Politics" at
Northern Virginia Community College. Among the guests he had come speak to the class were
Al Hunt,
Mark Halperin, Senator
George Allen,
George Stephanopoulos,
Karl Strubel,
Stan Greenberg,
Tony Blankley, representatives from the
Motion Picture Association of America,
James Fallows.
In 2006, Carville switched gears from politics to sports and became a host on a sports show called
60/20 Sports
on
XM Satellite Radio with Luke Russert, son of NBC journalist
Tim Russert. The show is an in-depth look at the culture of sports based on the ages of the two hosts (60 and 20). After the Democrats' victory in the 2006 midterm election, Carville criticized
Howard Dean as
Democratic National Committee Chair, calling for his ouster, as he believed Dean had not spent enough money. In late November 2006, Carville proposed a truce of sorts.
[6]
Carville is the
executive producer of the 2006 film
All the King's Men
, starring
Sean Penn and
Anthony Hopkins, which is loosely based on the life of
Louisiana Governor Huey Long.
Carville had believed that
Al Gore, whom he helped put in the White House as vice president in 1992, would run for president in 2008.
[7] This prediction did not come true.
Carville has moved to
New Orleans, and will teach at Tulane University as professor of practice starting spring semester of 2009.
On March 4, 2009,
Politico
reported that Carville, Paul Begala, and
Rahm Emanuel were the architects of the Democratic Party's strategy to cast conservative
talk radio host
Rush Limbaugh as the face of the
Republican Party.
[8] Carville was particularly critical of Limbaugh for saying he wanted
Barack Obama to "fail." It was later reported that Carville had voiced the opinion, during the presidency of
George W. Bush, that, "I don’t care if people like him or not, just so they don’t vote for him and his party. That is all I care about. I hope he doesn’t succeed, but I am a partisan Democrat. But the average person wants him to succeed. It is his country, his life or their lives. So he has that going for him."
[9] Carville made the remarks on September 11, 2001, shortly before the
terrorist attacks on the United States. Upon hearing news of the attacks, Carville asked reporters to "disregard" his prior comments.
[10]
Afghan presidential candidate
Ashraf Ghani hired Carville as a campaign advisor in July 2009. Carville said that the
2009 Afghan presidential election is "probably the most important election held in the world in a long time," and he called his new job "probably the most interesting project I have ever worked in my life."
[11] Carville, whose work for Ghani is
pro bono
, when asked about similarities between politics in Afghanistan and politics in Louisiana, responded:
:Yeah, I felt a little bit at home, to be honest with you. [12]
Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign
As an advisor to
Hillary Rodham Clinton's
2008 presidential campaign, Carville told
The New York Times
on March 22, 2008, that New Mexico Governor
Bill Richardson, who had just endorsed Senator
Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, was comparable to
Judas Iscariot. It was "an act of betrayal," said Carville. "Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week. Governor Richardson had served in President Bill Clinton's administration as both
United States Ambassador to the United Nations and
Secretary of Energy, and Carville believed that Richardson owed an endorsement to Senator Clinton in exchange for being offered those posts by her husband. Carville also claimed that Richardson assured many in the Clinton campaign that he would at least remain neutral and abstain from taking sides.
[13] Richardson refuted Carville's account, arguing that he had not made any promises to remain neutral. Richardson claims that his decision to endorse Obama was "clinched" by his speech on race relations following the swirl of controversy surrounding Obama's former pastor
Jeremiah Wright.
[14] Carville went on to note,"I doubt if Governor Richardson and I will be terribly close in the future," Carville said,
[15] but "I've had my say...I got one in the
wheelhouse and I tagged it."
Even as Clinton's campaign began to lose steam, Carville remained both loyal and positive in his public positions, rarely veering off message and stoutly defending the candidate. But on May 13, 2008, a few hours before the primary in
West Virginia, Carville remarked to an audience at
Furman University in
South Carolina, "I'm for Senator Clinton, but I think the great likelihood is that Obama will be the nominee."
[16] The moment marked a shift from his previous and often determinedly optimistic comments about the state of Hillary's campaign.
After Barack Obama's clear lead for victory in the Democratic presidential campaign on June 3, James Carville said he was ready to open up his wallet to help Obama build a political war chest to take on
John McCain in November.
[17]
Career as author
Carville is also a best-selling author. With his wife,
Republican Mary Matalin, and writer
Peter Knobler, Carville co-wrote
All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President
, published in 1995. He later wrote:
We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives
, published in 1996;
...And The Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr
, published in 1998; With
Paul Begala he co-wrote
Stickin
.
Suck Up, Buck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up
, in 2001, which detailed strategies for fighting and winning in business, politics, and life. In 2004, Carville released a political banter book entitled
Had Enough?
, as well as a children's picture book,
Lu and the Swamp Ghost
, with co-author
Patricia McKissack and illustrator
David Catrow. In January 2006, he released another book co-written with Begala,
Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future
.
Carville's most recent book is entitled
40 More Years: How the Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation
.
In 1996, Carville was inducted into the
Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in
Winnfield, along with former Louisiana State Treasurer
Mary Evelyn Parker and the late segregationist leader
Leander Perez.
Personal life
Carville is married to
Republican political pundit
Mary Matalin, who had worked for
President George H. W. Bush on his 1992 reelection campaign. Carville and Matalin were married in New Orleans in October 1993. They have two daughters: Matalin Mary "Matty" Carville and Emerson Normand "Emma" Carville. Carville publicly acknowledged that he has
adult attention-deficit disorder.
[18]
In 2008, Carville and Matalin relocated their family from Virginia to New Orleans.
[19] He is currently on the faculty of the department of political science at
Tulane University.
Film and television appearances
thumb in 2007
- Carville takes a lead role in The War Room
, a documentary about Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, together with George Stephanopoulos.
- He appeared in the 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt
as attorney Simon Leis.
- He appeared in three episodes of the sitcom Mad About You
playing himself, as head of a political consulting firm that hires Jamie Buchman, played by Helen Hunt.
- In the film Old School
, Carville makes a cameo appearing as himself, brought in as a ringer at a college-level debate society meeting and introduced as the "ragin' cajun". Will Ferrell then inexplicably gives a complex answer regarding US biotechnology policy. When it comes to Carville's rebuttal, he only says, "...We...(stumbles) have no response. That was perfect..."
- In the film Wedding Crashers
, Carville makes a cameo appearance alongside Senator John McCain of Arizona.
- He appeared as himself in Rachel Boynton's Our Brand Is Crisis
, a documentary that goes behind-the-scenes to show the manipulation and orchestration that is involved in big-time political campaigning. Movie follows members of the consulting firm of Greenberg Carville Shrum to Bolivia, where they have been hired to help controversial candidate Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada reclaim the presidency.
- Carville appears as the Governor of Missouri, Thomas Crittenden, in the 2007 movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
.
- He was in a Coca-Cola ad during Super Bowl XLII in 2008, with former Republican Senator Bill Frist.
- He appeared as himself in NBC's comedy 30 Rock
, season 2 episode 8, where he advises Jack Donaghy (a Republican supporter) on his relationship with a Democratic Congresswoman, and advises numerous characters on how to deal with their problems "Cajun style". ("Tryin' to steal candy from a vending machine? Here, let me show you how it's done...Cajun style.")
- Appeared in cartoon form in Season 2, Episode 10 of the Family Guy
"Running mates". Carville was introduced as the ragin' cajun and was trying to save Peter Griffin's career as school president. Peter cringed in terror every time he saw Carville's face.
- Starred in Steven Soderberg's HBO series K Street
along with his wife
- Starred in a 1998 Alka-Seltzer commercial with his wife Mary Matalin
Quotations
- "You can call the dogs in, wet the fire, and leave the house. The hunt is over." (Carville on Obama winning the White House)
- On the odds of John McCain beating Obama: "John King said that it would be the biggest comeback of the century. It actually would be the biggest comeback since Lazarus" [20]
- "Republicans now have their own network on Fox, so guys who don't like to answer questions, like Trent Lott, have a place to go to hit softballs."
- "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between."
- "But one of Clinton's problems was, the interest groups don't care about the working poor. The Republicans don't care about the working poor — they don't know any. The Op-Ed writers don't care about the working poor. The editorial writers don't care about the working poor. The talking heads don't care about the working poor."
- "Drag $100 bills through trailer parks, there's no telling what you'll find." regarding Paula Jones [21]
- "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil."
- "Someone should blow up the Rose Bowl."
- "I don’t care if people like him or not, just so they don’t vote for him and his party. That is all I care about. I hope he doesn’t succeed, but I am a partisan democrat. But the average person wants him to succeed. It is his country, his life or their lives. So he has that going for him."
- "But I'd rather not predict. I'd rather affect."
- "Ideologies aren't all that important. What's important is psychology."