James Carville's Bitter Take on the Dems Convention

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 8:36 AM on August 26, 2008.

I guess Mr. Carville's true colors (and one has to say they are very pale colors indeed) are showing. I have little respect left for Mr. Carville after the last few years of seeing him morph into a cartoon caricature of a human being, but his "critique" of the Democratic Convention;s first night hits a new low, even for him. He truly is a small minded, greedy and petty little man who doesn't give a damn for his own party, or for that matter for the millions of Americans, like my family and no doubt yours, who are suffering under the Bush Presidency. All he cares about apparently are the opportunities to make money he lost when Hillary Clinton stopped being his meal ticket:

On CNN this evening, Clintonista James Carville voiced his displeasure with tonight's proceedings as having no theme, no message.

"James Carville seems the least satisfied Democrat in here right now," noted CNN's Anderson Cooper. "What's going on James?"

"Well if this party has a message it has done a hell of a job of hiding it tonight I promise you that," Carville said.

"How do you mean?" asked the anchor. "You haven't heard about Iraq? You haven't heard about John McCain?"

"...George W. Bush, you haven't heard any of this," said Carville. "I mean we are a country that's borderline recession, 85% 80% wrong track country, people, health care, energy, I haven't heard anything about gas prices, I mean maybe we are going to look better Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but right now like I say we are playing hide the message pretty good."

"David Gergen said this a short time ago, that in the first two hours what is the message?" said Cooper.

"And you know what? David didn't get to where he was in life because he's stupid He was exactly right. I look at this and I am about to jump out of my chair...There's no message coming out of here, there is no sense that the party has a sense of urgency, and we've only got four nights this is 25% of the whole thing."

For a man to watch the speeches that were given by Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama and not be moved by them in even some small way is sad. Yet Carville, ever the attack dog for Bill Clinton, can't stop himself from going after Obama. He's like one of those Japanese soldiers left alone on some small island in the Pacific who never got the news that the war is over, that his side lost, and that a new reality has emerged. All I can say is thank god Hillary Clinton lost, if Carville was part of the baggage she would have brought to the Presidency.


As for Carville's criticism, I think the first night of the convention did exactly what it was intended to do: rally the base of the party, and promote two very important messages: one of unity, unity among Democrats and unity among Americans, a unity achievable only if Obama is elected. Second message, to show that Obama and his family, are not the bizarre creatures which the media and Republican partisans (i.e., McCain's Rovian attack dogs) have portrayed them to be, i.e., as elitists and as leftist extremists, but as Americans just like the millions of viewers watching them, with a story just like the millions of Americans watching them, and with a values regarding country and family that are shared by the millions of Americans watching them.

Ted Kennedy's speech, unexpected as it may have been, accomplished the goal of unity all by itself. Michelle Obama's speech delivered on the second message. Here are the real Obama's she told America. People who believe in fairness, opportunity for all. People who worked hard and got where they are today because of that hard work, and because of the sacrifices their parents made for them. People who understand the difficulties and suffering we all face in life because they have endured that same suffering and those same difficulties in their own lives. People who care about their fellow Americans, a concern expressed not with words but by their deeds in turning away from the easy money of big law firms for the hard slog of working to improve the lives of people in need. That was a tremendous message to deliver last night. And anyone who watched those speakers and heard those speeches felt that message delivered straight to their gut. Indeed, Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama's speeches were filled with moments that would make very effective political ads should the Obama campaign wish to do so. I doubt any speaker at the GOP convention will rival them.


I don't know. Maybe James Carville is just too bitter, too wrapped up in his own little petty concerns about all the lobbying money he lost now that Hillary won't be President, to see that. Or maybe he's just a guy who never shed his racist, redneck Louisiana past. Who knows. But the sooner he leaves the national stage, the better for all of us. I doubt anyone on Fox News was any nastier than Carville was in blindly lashing out at the convention's first night of speeches and speakers. He represents the politics of corruption, of influence peddling, of selling out America and ordinary Americans for corporate profits. He represents the past, one of failure and divisiveness. One where loyalty to his Patrone overrides every other consideration. He's a dinosaur. The sooner someone puts him out of his misery the better.

Tagged as: obama, kennedy, carville, democrati convention