Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid chronicles James Carville’s life over a year and a half while looking back on his career.

If you’re not familiar with the Ragin’ Cajun, it probably means that you’re living in a cave. Well, maybe. It could just be that you’re ignorant to American politics. In any event, if you’re not familiar with Carville, you’ll probably just watch something else instead. But for politicos such as myself, it’s the TV pick of the weekend aside from the sporting events airing on TV. The doc will stream on Max at some point. It’s a wonder that nobody thought of making a documentary on the Democratic strategist and commentator. I was years late to learning to Carville’s career as a strategist but I became a regular viewer of Crossfire in the early 2000s, later meeting Paul Begala after attending a taping on June 5, 2002. I’m running this now because I’ll be offline for both Rosh Hashanah and Shabbos.

The film premiered during the Telluride Film Festival at the end of August. Footage is recent from as late as June 2024 if it gives you an idea of how much they were still filming and editing going into June and July. I’m familiar with filmmakers locking their films close to the world premiere but it’s usually for color and sound. It’s rarely the fact that they are still filming with two months to go but here we are. In this case though, it was a matter of starting production again after the first test screening. My cap is off to Matt Tyrnauer for being able to finish the film in time. I don’t know how many other filmmakers would have done the same thing but I don’t envy him being in the position. This really speaks to the importance of this year’s election.

Before President Joe Biden announced in July 2024 that he would be withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election, Carville had been calling for him to withdrawing. Polling numbers were not kind to the president back to May 2023. President Biden was down 49% – 42% a year and a half before the election. A year later, he was losing to Trump in five of six battleground states, three of which were needed to win. It wasn’t until June 2024’s disastrous debate that other pundits and elected officials would join him with wanting another candidate. Thankfully, the party went into August’s DNC with a united front rather than a repeat of 1968. Regardless, the poll’s release changed the entire direction of the documentary.

“That poll–it knocked me right off f***ing horse,” Carville says of the Washington Post/ABC poll.

While Carville does share his thoughts on the election, the film is also about his childhood, his early career, and of course, his marriage to Republican operative Mary Matalin. The stories that they share–despite being on opposite sites, neither one has ever considered divorce. But as Mary says, Carville is “relentlessly authentic.” The doc is as much biographical on Carville’s background in as much as it is him using his platform to warn people that President Biden could lose the election.

Tyrnauer weaves in intimate interviews, verité and archival footage as he tells Carville’s story. How did the Ragin’ Cagun become this way? It turns out that the Carville, Louisiana native didn’t want to keep living paycheck to paycheck. He worked as both a high school teacher and an attorney while also working as a political consultant in Louisiana. Carville mostly stuck to working on Louisiana political campaigns in the 70s and early 80s. He first met Paul Begala when he worked on Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s then-losing campaign for the U.S. Senate in Texas. However, everything would change for the best after Carville signed on to join Bob Casey Sr.’s campaign for governor in Pennsylvania. Carville was behind the “guru” add that gave Casey the win after being tied late in the polls. “The Casey campaign, without a doubt, I’m not me.”

But before the film takes a deep dive into his political career, we get an inside look at how he grew up in Carville. The town was renamed after his family because it was initially named Island and the mail kept getting mixed up. He was one of eight children and until his mother’s death, he called her as much as five times a day. Hansen’s Disease drove the town’s economy as the only leprosarium was located in the small town–there is only one stop sign in the entire city!

Of growing up in a small town, Carville says, “If you were in Carville in 1959, say the population was a thousand — four hundred would’ve had leprosy, and five hundred fifty of them were Black. If you didn’t get along with people, you were gonna have a pretty lonely life.” Growing up in the small town helped shape him in the years before becoming a household name.

Carville went on a winning streak in 1986-1992 after helping lead the Casey campaign to victory. Victories would soon follow for Wallace Wilkinson, Frank Lautenberg, Zell Miller, and Harris Wofford. He had the pick of the litter to choose from any of the presidential candidates. After learning George Stephanopoulos signed onto work for Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, both Carville and Paula Begala would follow. Stephanopoulos recalls that a lot of Democratic candidates thought Bush was going to be unbeatable. It’s while working for Clinton in which he really changed the way that political campaigns are run. He’s the guy that came up with “It’s the economy, stupid.” Another point he wrote down in the Clinton war room: “Change vs. more of the same.”

It’s because of Carville that President Clinton would use the draft deferment letter to his advantage. After all, Carville had served in the Marines and was honorably discharged. He felt being defiant would send a bigger signal. The former president sung Carville’s praises of being able to distil a message.

Paul Begala and George Stephanopoulos are among those who know Carville the best. According to Mary Matalin, they are among the six or seven people that the political strategist has on speed dial. He talks to them every day with rare exceptions. Also in this group are Mandy Grunwald, George Stephanopoulos, Stanley Greenberg, Sidney Blumenthal, and others. Of the group that composed Clinton War Room, Carville has the most influence. When he talks, people listen. Their conversations go back to the 1992 Clinton campaign–a good chunk of archival footage comes directly from Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker’s 1993 Oscar nominated documentary, The War Room. Matt Tyrnauer was in the room for many phone calls throughout filming but only a small portion end up in the hour and a half film.

President Clinton also talks about Carville and how his involvement with the campaign. Donna Brazile, who also worked as an advisor on the Clinton campaign, notes how Carville talks the like a real person because he interacts with real people. Interestingly, Matalin and Carville met in January 1991. She recalls a dinner where friends were congratulating Carville for taking a new job. She didn’t realize it was with the Clinton campaign nor did she want to make a scene. Their opposite politics makes for an interesting marriage. Matalin recalls turning the TV on and seeing Carville wearing a teal jacket on the night that Clinton won.

“James got credit for dating me and I got $#!+ for dating him,” Matalin says.

There are plenty of clips from their book tour and many TV appearances together. Most important are the appearances with the late Tim Russert on Meet the Press. He could see right through the shtick and saw their authenticity. Matalin gets rather intimate in discussing their relationship, being on opposite sides, and what it meant to take a job with the Bush-Cheney administration. They starred in the ten-episode K Street series on HBO. Over twenty years later, it is not available anywhere to watch digitally but the complete series is available on DVD.

Carville calling for Biden to drop out put him at odds with the likes of Sen. John Fetterman. Sen. Fetterman did not take kindly to the remarks. The political strategist was saying publicly what so many had been saying in private. I have to admit that I had my own fears but my eyes were still on the prize. People were worried about Biden being too old for the job. As Stephanopoulos says, “James is nothing if not consistent.” With the film inching closer towards the June 26 debate, Carville recalls LBJ withdrawing from the race, leading to a free-for-all at the 1968 DNC in Chicago about five months later. Obviously, the conversation is now a moot point but Carville was taking a lot of heat for just telling it like it is.

One can get a real sense of watching the film that Carville is not a fan of some of today’s rhetoric. He did not like Democrats campaigning on “Defund the Police” and he really goes after “woke silliness.” During a podcast appearance with Bill Maher, he really goes after “woke” people and gets into the term’s origin being about Black people. There’s also footage from a panel during the Texas Tribune Festival from September 2023. As Democratic strategist Mandy Grunwald comments, “He is the voice pushing the Democratic Party to remember the whole country.” Which it should. Carville later comments toward the end that there are millions of Americans who do not have any friends or talk to people in the other party. He views the “woke” wing of the party has subscribing to the ideology that will lose elections.

Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid is a unique must-watch election season documentary, if only because it’s also the celebration of a legacy.

DIRECTOR: Matt Tyrnauer
FEATURING: James Carville, Mary Matalin, Mary Anne Olivier, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala, Mandy Grunwald, Bill Clinton, Al Hunt, Donna Brazile, Rev. Al Sharpton, Mitch Landrieu, Sidney Blumenthal, Walter Isaacson, Bob Barnett, Bill Maher, Ali Vitali, Clancy Dubos

CNN will air Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid on October 5, 2024 at 7 PM ET. It will stream on Max this fall. Grade: 4.5/5

Please subscribe to Dugout Dirt and Solzy on Buttondown.