Archive: James Carville

In the premiere edition of the Smoke-Filled Room, CBS News Correspondent Bill Plante took readers' questions and bounced them off Democratic political consultant James Carville

Plante: Several viewers asked if, as a Democratic strategist, you are concerned that a McCain-Gore race would drain Democrats away from Gore to McCain?

Carville: Sure. But, I think I’m concerned about everything…But I also feel like it probably would depress Republican turnout, too…it could be a bad or good thing right now.

Plante: Would it be better for Gore to run against Bush or McCain?

Carville: You know, be careful what you wish for in politics, you might get it. You know, I’ve studiously avoided that question because…I honestly don’t know. It seems that most of the politicians don’t like the idea of running against McCain. Most of the consultants I talked to like it a little better, but I don’t know if there’s a real consensus there.

Plante: Questioner Beth Brotherton has a theory about George W.’s popularity and wants to know if you think that she’s out in left field. She asks “are some Americans willing to embrace G.W. because they feel guilty about ousting his father?”

Carville: Some, but not many. I think most of the people that are for him were for his father. I mean, most of them were Republicans. But, uh, I don’t think he’s gonna get many election votes to speak of because people felt guilty about what happened in ’92…These people were gonna vote Republican anyway, from the get go.

Plante: So it wouldn’t be Republicans trying to right what they see as a wrong?

Carville: The folks that would say that would be folks that would vote Republican anyway and voted Republican in ’92. I mean if he’s (Bush) gonna win the general election he’s gonna have to get everybody who voted Republican in ’92…

Plante: All right, Janiece Adams, self-described loyal Democrat, asks if Al Gore - her candidate, by the way - is being overadvised, which gets him into trouble. ”Shouldn’t they just let Al Gore be Al Gore” she wonders?

Carville: Well, I would say I’ve never seen a presidential candidate or campaign that ever suffered for a lack of advice.

Plante: So, IS Gore being overadvised?

Carville: I don’t think so. It doesn’t matter how much advice you give someone. It matters how much the candidate takes. And I think he’s been a lot improved and lot more disciplined than he was earlier.

Plante: So, letting Al Gore be Al Gore, what do you think?

Carville: I think he’s done, sort of much better. I think he runs on adrenalin. I think they have him out there doing things, that he’s enjoying himself, that he’s doing a lot better job But again, I go back to my point, that all the campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns, are all overadvised. But the question is how much advice the candidate takes and if the advice he listens to is the real thing.

Plante: The next questioner, Nick Perrone, heard you say in a Cherry Hill, New Jersey speech that the most "positive or optimistic candidate" would win the election. So after hearing from the four principal candidates, who fulfills that criterion?

Carville: Well, what I said in the Cherry Hill speech was that’s something that developed over the period of the campaign. It’s too early to tell, but I think Bush started out and was pretty much knocked off of his game. Right now I guess it’s McCain and Gore, a little bit that are doing it, but you can’t tell this early in the campaign. It’s something that becomes instinctive over the period of the campaign.

Plante: A viewer named Nathan wants you to address what he describes as the “rightward drift of the Democratic Party.” He gives as an example - a Pentagon budget being increased at the expense of programs to assist the unfortunate - and adds that the largest public works project in the nation is massive incarceration and prison construction.

Carville: I think that, there’s no doubt that the Party’s moved somewhat to the center, but I think that’s one side of the story. The other side of the coin is that the Republican Party has moved massively away from the right since 1994 and the truth of the matter is I think the American people by and large are moving away. I think… (Clinton) has done a really good job of repositioning the Party.

If you look at what’s happening in the McCain candidacy, (McCain is) actually questioning the premise of the Republican Party. The President doesn’t question the premise of the Democratic Party, but he did question some of its policies and moved it towards more balanced budgets and the death penalty and that type of thing. There’s no doubt about that.

Plante: How could Bradley make a comeback at this point?

Carville: It’s kind of late now. I think he should have made his campaign more about people and less about himself. And, would probably have done better to exhibit greater vigor and passion in talking about the things he wanted to do. I think the election got away from him, because it got very personal to him.

And he also suffered a little bit of bad luck in McCain. Given the nature of the country and the press, you now know, we now know it’s pretty hard to sustain more than one insurgent. It’s news, budgets and everything. A reporter from a major newspaper, just before I spoke to you, told me that there’s just three press people with Bradley - that’s because the story is McCain.

I mean, McCain’s earned it by, you know, winning by 19 (n New Hampshire). I mean there’s not, I don’t think it’s a conspiracy or anything. It’s just the way it is.

Plante: But it is the way it works?

Carville: Yes, it is the way it works.

Plante: Who’s the ideal choice for VP for Gore?

Carville: Bob Rubin (former Treasury Secretary) is my candidate for Gore. I think if you want to remind people about the recovery you do it in the least subtle, most obvious way you can.

Plante: How about McCain or Bush?

Carville: You know, Bush has got to go with a senator, I think. He needs to go with somebody, with a little (experience in) Washington. McCain: the question here is does he pick another insurgent? …My guess is he’s being pulled a little bit. McCain… may be the first nominee that we’ve seen since Goldwater (in 1964) that doesn’t run toward the center. He have to run to the right, which would really be odd. He may need to reassure these republicans to get “them back on the reservation” here.

Plante: Who’d be good for that?

Carville: Maybe somebody like Dan Coates (former Indiana senator)…I don’t think you’d go with a Fred Thompson (Tennessee senator). Or he might go with a big Bush supporter. He may go with a John Engler (Michigan governor) to repair any divisions he may have in the party.

Plante: Ed Brown and Melissa Bowman want to know if you are going to play any role in Hillary’ senate race?

Carville: I’m going to support her, but not in any professional role.

Plante: There were questions from Tim Main, Scott Hines and others who wanted to know if you and Mary were going to write another book about the Clinton years and also about how you put up with each other’s politics.

Carville: No plans, and she’s…with me right now. We have no plans to write another book. Sometimes she’ll say it’s hard to put up with my politics and I’ll say it’s hard to put up with her politics. But we’re doing all right. We’ve been together nine years, seven years married.