I can’t remember the first time I saw The War Room, but it’s a good bet it was during Senior Government class back in 1999-2000.
The film came out on December 5, 1993, and profiled the 1992 Presidential Campaign that catapulted Bill Clinton into the White House. A large part of that campaign strategy came from the Ragin’ Cajun, James Carville.
Carville’s a pretty smart guy – you’d have to be if your mom sold World Book Encyclopedia’s door-to-door – and he got his law degree from Louisiana State University. He did two years in the Marines after graduating, from 1967-9 in San Diego, and then headed back to law school.
Carville’s first election victories began in the 1980s, and the big one was Robert Casey of Pennsylvania in 1986, followed by Zell Miller in Georgia in 1990. The man could get governors elected.
He proved he could work magic at the national level in 1991 when he drove Senator Harris Wofford back from the brink, erasing a 40-point deficit to take the win. Things like that just didn’t happen, not when the President was supporting the opposing candidate.
Perhaps that was the problem, however – it was during that Wofford campaign in Pennsylvania that Carville implemented the economic strategy that would propel Clinton, mainly through the line “it’s the economy, stupid.”
We saw a lot of Carville over those two days in Senior Government, and I think many students enjoyed the film. Now, most students will enjoy just about any film while in Senior Government, but I remember saying to the teacher that it was certainly better than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
The film came out on December 5, 1993, and profiled the 1992 Presidential Campaign that catapulted Bill Clinton into the White House. A large part of that campaign strategy came from the Ragin’ Cajun, James Carville.
Carville’s a pretty smart guy – you’d have to be if your mom sold World Book Encyclopedia’s door-to-door – and he got his law degree from Louisiana State University. He did two years in the Marines after graduating, from 1967-9 in San Diego, and then headed back to law school.
Carville’s first election victories began in the 1980s, and the big one was Robert Casey of Pennsylvania in 1986, followed by Zell Miller in Georgia in 1990. The man could get governors elected.
He proved he could work magic at the national level in 1991 when he drove Senator Harris Wofford back from the brink, erasing a 40-point deficit to take the win. Things like that just didn’t happen, not when the President was supporting the opposing candidate.
Perhaps that was the problem, however – it was during that Wofford campaign in Pennsylvania that Carville implemented the economic strategy that would propel Clinton, mainly through the line “it’s the economy, stupid.”
We saw a lot of Carville over those two days in Senior Government, and I think many students enjoyed the film. Now, most students will enjoy just about any film while in Senior Government, but I remember saying to the teacher that it was certainly better than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
The last time I watched The War Room was on January 20, 2006. I keep a movie watch list so I know this. It’s a good film, and you can learn things. And after that I didn’t see much of Carville. Oh, he advised some campaigns and did some talking head stuff, but that was about it. I do remember when Tim Russert died on June 13, 2008, that he was deeply affected. I remember seeing a show they’d done on Meet the Press, Carville and his wife and their daughters, when Russert had given them a lot of toys.
It’s sad stuff thinking about that, but I’m sure James Carville thinks about it quite often, or at least once a week. That’s when he does a radio show with Tim Russert’s son, Luke, called 60/20 Sports.
It’s sad stuff thinking about that, but I’m sure James Carville thinks about it quite often, or at least once a week. That’s when he does a radio show with Tim Russert’s son, Luke, called 60/20 Sports.
James Carville is the political type that wears his heart on his sleeve. He says what he thinks, and people like him for that. We haven’t heard much from him since 2008, when he worked on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It wasn’t until late in the primary season, mid-May, that he finally admitted Obama was likely to win. But then when it was done he supported Obama and helped raise money.
Now Carville is coming to Helena, as the Billings Gazette reported yesterday. He’ll be speaking at the Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner on March 7 and you can buy tickets here. As you can see, they’re quite expensive:
Now Carville is coming to Helena, as the Billings Gazette reported yesterday. He’ll be speaking at the Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner on March 7 and you can buy tickets here. As you can see, they’re quite expensive:
I suppose I could go if I had $60 to spend, which maybe I will. Still, I just don’t feel as though I’m wanted there, even though I got this in the mail on January 12:
Why do I feel this way? Because I disagree with the direction the Montana Democratic Party has taken and I don’t think the people that came to power with that directional change like that talk. But then I don’t know any other people that are looking at these three maps and thinking we have a problem:
The 1964 Presidential Election in Montana
The 1992 Presidential Election in Montana
The 2014 U.S. House race in Montana
So we’ve got some problems here. I point those out, no one wants to listen. What can you do? I guess buy a ticket for $60 to $5,000. That way a southerner can tell us the answers to our problems. Should be interesting.
