James Carville Biography

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James Carville (born October 25, 1944), is an American political consultant, commentator, and pundit. Also known as the "Ragin' Cajun" or "Corporal Cueball", Carville gained national attention for his work as the strategist of the successful 1992 presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. (David Wilhelm was the campaign manager.) Carville was the co-host of CNN's Crossfire until its final broadcast in June 2005. Since its cancellation, he has appeared on CNN's new program, The Situation Room. As of 2006, he currently hosts a weekly program on XM Radio entitled 60/20 Sports with Luke Russert, son of NBC's Tim Russert.

Early life and career

Born and raised in Carville, Louisiana, to Chester James Carville and Lucille Norman, Carville has a distinct American Southern accent, which coupled with his quick and fiery rhetoric made him a charismatic manager of underdog political candidates, and a mediagenic commentator during the Clinton Administration. Before entering politics, Carville worked as a litigator at a Baton Rouge law firm from 1973-1979, spent 2 years serving in the U.S. Marines, and worked as a high school teacher. He graduated from Louisiana State University with an undergraduate and law degree. Carville married Republican political consultant Mary Matalin, who had worked for George Bush on his reelection campaign in 1992, on Thanksgiving Day, 1993.

Prior to the Clinton campaign, Carville and consulting partner Paul Begala gained other well-known political victories, including the 1991 Senate victory of Harris Wofford and the gubernatorial victories of Robert Casey in 1986 and Zell Miller in 1990. But it was in 1991 when Carville and Begala rose to national attention, leading appointed incumbent Senator Harris Wofford 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. Carville has since 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 to help American-educated Bolivian Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada win the presidency in Bolivia.

In 2004, he was brought in for last-minute consulting on the John Kerry campaign, but he did not play a major role.

In 2005, Carville took a stab at teaching. He taught a semester of the course "Topics in American Politics" at Northern Virginia Community College. The students were elated at having Carville teach them and 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, and frequent appearances from his wife, Mary Matalin.

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). He also enjoys the sport of running, and he runs every day.Runner's World article

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.

1992 Clinton 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:

1. Change vs. more of the same.
   
2. The economy, stupid.
   
3. Don't forget health care.
   

Writings and other information

Carville is also a best-selling author and co-author. With his wife, Republican Mary Matalin, and writer Peter Knobler, Carville co-wrote All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President. Later he wrote: We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives, The Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr and Stickin. Suck Up, Buck Up... and Come Back When You Foul Up, Carville's co-written book with Paul Begala, details 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 C. McKissack and illustrator David Catrow). In January 2006, he released another book co-written with Begala, entitled Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future. He enjoys including favorite recipes in his books. Carville lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two daughters.

Film and television appearances

• Carville takes a lead role in The War Room, a documentary about Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, together with George Stephanopoulos.
  
• In the film Old School, Carville makes a cameo appearing as himself, brought in as a ringer at a college-level debate society meeting. 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...."
  
• Carville appears as a district attorney prosecuting the title character in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt.
  
• Carville makes a cameo in the movie Wedding Crashers.
  
• Carville and Matalin played themselves in an episode of Mad About You. Over the closing credits, they play out a scene that the show's stars Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt had played out at the beginning, in character as Paul and Jamie Buchman. When Paul's cousin Ira (John Pankow) walks in at the end, as he did in the original version, he sees Carville and Matalin, and asks, "Am I on the right show?"
  
• Carville appears as himself in an episode of Spin City.
  
• Carville plays a judge in an episode of King of the Hill.
  
• Carville played himself in the Clooney/Soderbergh produced HBO series K Street.
  
• Carville is featured in the documentary film Our Brand Is Crisis where he consulted on the Bolivian presidential election campaign.
  
• Carville is parodied by Ben Affleck in a Saturday Night Live sketch about John Kerry's campaign in 2004.
  
• Carville is parodied in the Family Guy episode "Running Mates," helping the main character Peter Griffin out of a scandal.
  
• Carville was interviewed on The Colbert Report, primarily talking about the 2006 movie All the King's Men.
  
• In Primary Colors Carville is the basis for the character Richard Jemmons played by Billy Bob Thornton.
  
• Carville briefly appears in the 2006 movie Man of the Year.
  

Quotations

• "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."
  

• "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."
  

• "When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil."
  

• "We didn't find the key to the electoral lock...we just picked it." - Remarking about the 1992 Election.
  

• "Don't get mad. Don't get even. Just get elected, then get even."
  

• â??Hurricane [Katrina] hit the Gulf Coast and destroyed much of the Gulf Coast - that was an act of God ... Now what happened to New Orleans, that was a complete failure of the federal government. Complete negligence by the feds.â??
  

• "When it comes to being visionary in stealing, the Republicans do better than anybody. It's really something to see." - in his 25th January 2006 appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
  

• "Washington is a dirty diaper. It's time for a change." - on his 6th September 2006 appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
  

• "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find." regarding Paula Jones
  

• "Look, if George W. Bush and his Republican cronies walked on water, I'd be the guy out there yelling that they couldn't swim. But don't take it from me: we've now heard it from the military commanders and our intelligence community: George Bush's actions in Iraq have not made us safer. They've done the opposite."
  

References

• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
  

External links

• The Office of James Carville
  
• CNN Biography
  
• Democracy Corps
  

de:James Carville

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