"The Salon Interview: James Carville"

By Joan Walsh

Published March 13, 2002 8:00PM (EST)

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Thanks for the Carville article. Maybe we should send it to Barney Frank. He's intelligent and brave and did such a superb job of dissecting the GOP during the impeachment trial.

-- H.J. Thomas

Why doesn't James Carville run for President in 2004? He may not win the Democratic nomination, but he'd put the kind of pressure on the other Democrats in the race that Ralph Nader was unable to exert from his perch in a marginal third party.

Carville for President! I'm getting my bumper stickers printed up now.

-- Tracey McCartney

I think one of the problems President Clinton had was he believed the fiction that the left supported him. It was the left which deserted Clinton first. This allowed the Republican right to freely criticize Clinton without any opposition.

Carville is right on in regard to Democrats. They have been brainless and spineless for way too long. The world is complicated. Simplistic government solutions are not always the answer, but someone has to stand up to the Republican's mindless government solutions for the well off.

-- Daniel A. Greenbaum

Thanks Salon.com for a great interview. I agree the Democrats seem too shy or scared to stand up on present issues, or to defend Dashcle and Clinton from the traditional right who won't stop. How about Hillary? You did not ask Carville why she is too timid to speak out.

James Carville is also correct that Clinton cares for the poor like me (who belong in the bracket he described).

I still fault Gore and his team for Florida. Remember how Lieberman quickly agreed to count the military absentee ballots even though they did not follow the rules? Tell me, if many had been discarded, wouldn't the vote carry Gore? Yes, I am very angry that Gore squandered the chance to become the President and also angry that he didn't give Clinton the chance to campaign for him.

I am an Asian-American, a first time writer but an avid reader.

--Roy Dejesus

Oh, James, why can't it be you? Why don't you run for the Presidency? Of course, that First Lady thing might present a problem, but heck, you're surviving her working for Cheney for God's sake!

On the other hand, maybe it's better just to have you in the advocate position, where you can push and goad the proxy into doing the right thing.

At any rate, James Carville is divine!

-- Teresa Blagg

The mainstream media pooh-poohs self-evident truth when it comes from the center or left ('vast right wing conspiracy') but swallows self-evident lies if the nut-job right repeats them often enough. Carville's colorful and accurate description of the media food chain is too off-color for the media but let Ken Starr hint at marks on Clinton's penis and they fairly swoon as they repeat his lies. And I thought the media was supposed to have a liberal bias.

-- Douglas Steele

It seems that Mr. Carville hit the nail on the head with his analysis of the Clinton Presidency and the Democrats in general. Carville is right in the fact that most African Americans really could identify with Bill Clinton. What Carville fails to mention is how white politicians, from both the left or right, always pander to white racism. The Democrats routinely "dis" Jesse Jackson, Sista Soulja or some other African American leader.

Carville is right: If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything. When will the Democrats get a spine? I am considered a far left African American radical by my peers, but I would vote for a principled Republican even though I disagree with those principles so long as I could respect that person. The Democrats have few principles and get no respect.

-- Andre Robertson


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