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James Carville





James Carville (born October 25 , 1944 ), is an American Political Consultant , commentator and Pundit . Also known as the '''" Ragin' Cajun "'''. He gained national attention for his work as the strategist of the successful 1992 Presidential campaign of then-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 .


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 a couple of years in the U.S. Marines , and worked as a high school Teacher . He graduated from Louisiana State University with Undergraduate and law degrees.

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 . 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 Sanchez de Losada 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 co-host on a sports show called 60/20 on XM Satellite 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).


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, in a rough approximation of haiku:
# Change vs. more of the same.
# The Economy, Stupid .
# Don't forget health care.


WRITINGS AND OTHER INFORMATION


Carville is also a best-selling author and co-author. With his wife, s in his books.


FILM AND TELEVISION APPEARANCES

Carville takes a lead role in '' The War Room '', a documentrary 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...."

  • He 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.



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."


  • “Yeah, I graduated with a 4.0… blood alcohol level.”


  • “I didn’t just experiment with marijuana – if you know what I mean.”


  • “Hurricane {Link without Title} 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.”


  • "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 .



REFERENCES

  • Clinton, Bill (2005). ''My Life''. Vintage. ISBN 140003003X.



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