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James Carville

American political consultant

James Carville (born October 25, 1944) is a Fox News contributor, American political consultant, commentator, media personality, and pundit. Also known as the "Ragin' Cajun" or "Corporal Cue Ball", Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the successful 1992 presidential campaign of then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. 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. He is the husband of Mary Matalin.

James Carville
Elections are about fucking your enemies.
Winning is about fucking your friends.

Quotes

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  • Stay focused. Talk about things that’ll matter to the people, you know? It’s the economy, stupid.
    • In the 1993 documentary film The War Room.
  • Let me buy a [security] pass … so that they can scan me and and search me and measure my penis, then let me get on the plane.
    • The Tony Kornheiser Show (January 15, 2010)
  • John McCain, if you liked the last eight, you are going to love the next four.
    • Meet the Press, 4/14/2008
  • You can call the dogs in, wet the fire, and leave the house. The hunt's over.
    • On Obama winning the White House
    • CNN Election Night in America 11/7/2008
  • 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.
    • Referring to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton on Good Friday).
  • Whenever I hear a campaign talk about a need to energize the base, that's a campaign that's going down the toilet. It's a pretty good indication that they're not eating up any territory, they can't get anybody in the center to support them, they're getting shelled back into their own bunker.
    • In All's fair: love, war, and running for president (2007), with Mary Matalin and Peter Knobler, p. 207
  • Who cares? Sometimes you need rebirth. (On the destruction of America)
    • The Colbert Report, 9/20/06
  • 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.
    • In a speech to LSU students at the Manship School of Communications' Holliday Forum on January 27, 2006.
  • I didn’t just experiment with marijuana — if you know what I mean.
    • In a speech to LSU students at the Manship School of Communications' Holliday Forum on January 27, 2006.
  • Yeah, I graduated with a 4.0... blood alcohol level.
    • In a speech to LSU students at the Manship School of Communications' Holliday Forum on January 27, 2006.
  • Back in 2000 a Republican friend warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true!
    • Account of speech to a group, in Had enough?: A handbook for fighting back (2003), p. 2 [1]
  • Republicans want smaller government for the same reason crooks want fewer cops: it's easier to get away with murder.
    • In Had enough?: A handbook for fighting back (2003), p. 21 [2]
  • What I'm suggesting is, stand for yourself, be for something, and the hell with it. Because the hand-wringers and the editorialists and the sigh-and-pontificate crowd will be against you, whatever you do.
    • March 11, 2002, interview with Joan Walsh [5]
  • Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find.
    • January 1996; thought to be a reference to Paula Jones and her charge that President Clinton had sexually assaulted her, but Carville insisted he meant Gennifer Flowers
  • At the beginning of the Clinton administration in the early 1990s, adviser James Carville was stunned at the power the bond market had over the government. If he came back, Carville said: I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or a .400 baseball hitter. But now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.
    • Wall Street Journal (February 25, 1993, p. A1)
  • When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil.
    • In All's fair: love, war, and running for president (2007), with Mary Matalin and Peter Knobler
  • Why does a dog lick his dick? Because he can. Why does Congress spend money like that? Because it can.
    • The Agenda (1994), Bob Woodward
  • Sign on the wall in the 1992 Clinton campaign headquarters : The economy, stupid.
    • The Agenda (1994), Bob Woodward

Quotes about

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  • James Carville was one person I was certain I’d dislike when I sat down to interview him in the early spring of 1996. Carville was a famous partisan. He ran Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and shamelessly shilled for the Democratic Party. Watching him from afar, Carville struck me as a transparent fraud. What I discovered in talking to him was that James Carville was indeed a fraud, but openly so, in the most honest and genuine way. Over time, Carville wound up one of my favorite people in the world, one of the few friends I’ve gone to repeatedly for serious life advice. I haven’t taken a new job in twenty years without calling him first. James Carville is a genuinely wise man. What a shock that was to discover. Life is full of happy surprises like that, thank God. They more than compensate for the rest.
    • Tucker Carlson, The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism (2021)
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