There is a great danger in attempting to sympathize with a subject that is still current when one makes a documentary: the phenomenon that you initially intended to study may alter so quickly that by the time you finish filming, all you can do is mention it in the last seconds of the film. At this point, however, the audience is already aware of the change by the time they come to view the movie that you have prepared.
In James Carville’s case, some people certainly might recall the lines “It’s all about winning, … You’re an idiot!” in the biographical documentary called ‘Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid’. This political consultant and strategist is best described as a “Cajun Hiroshima” owing to his fiery impassioned speeches and beyond.
However for most of the duration of this picture, his audience witnesses the harrowing anxiety of this individual as the 2024 Presidential race comes closer and His subject matter Carville, through all of this, loses sleep as he begins thinking about the worst-case scenario since early polls suggest that challenger Donald Turmp stands a strong chance against an incumbent Joe Biden. While publicly there were polite calls for the President to consider stepping down, only a few knee jerk reactions even from members of Carville’s own party. However, internally, Carville did have his own distinct opinions on whether or not the President was mentally fit for the rigours of running for a second term and if excuses for being ‘too old’ were valid.
Then, May of the year 2024 comes and in any case, worrisome findings were revealed by the Boston Washington post. The poll suggested that 42% of voters would most probably not vote for Joe Biden again, with 49% of vote in favour of Donald Trump.
Carville does not sugarcoat things: “That poll, it knocked me right off my f-cking horse.” It was only a short time afterward that the flamboyant operative began advocating the adoption of a Plan B: Mr. Biden should opt out of the race without picking up anyone suitable to continue the fight and call for nomination of a different candidate at the Democratic National Convention without restrictions.
Sure enough, that is not exactly how it all unfolded. (Kamala Harris makes a very brief appearance right before the end credits roll, in a clip that was clearly added just before the film’s world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in late summer.) It is a tribute to how powerful – and yes, how teasing the film is up to this rather peculiar “twist”, that Tyrnauer managed to craft a plot which, though clearly not quite so eloquent, is somewhat complete.
It is much more enjoyable that ‘Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid” cuts back and forth between the cut-throat politics of the upcoming 2024 elections and the blurring image of Carville, who first was a ‘nobody’ and progressively evolved into a powerful political strategist.
He gained considerable visibility at the national level for the first time as chief campaign advisor to Bill Clinton in 1992 when Clinton was successfully elected to the presidency. One of Carville’s early starting aides, George Stephanopoulos, explains why the adviser and the candidate “both had a little rogue in them”, which arguably helped both men whenever there came a time when Carville had to defend himself as some of the skeletons in the closet of Clinton such as affairs and draft-beating were brought out in the open.
Carville skilfully orchestrated how these scandals and others would be buried during the watershed moment that was the election campaign by focusing on the ability of the then candidate, Clinton, to provide solutions that Bush was unable to. To this end, Carville was able to develop a slogan that he hoped would fuel his staff “It’s the economy, stupid!” and that would become the early 90s version of the internet meme.
(Tyrnauer mischievously incorporates clips from “The War Room,” a remarkable 1993 chronicling of the Clinton camp’s backroom operators including, but not limited to Carville himself’s now hilariously absurd assertion that Bush was just too old to be an effective president by Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker. )
The other relationship regarding Carville which is also untouched by other commentators but thoroughly emphasized throughout the documentary: His relationship with a Republican operative Mary Matalin, whom he met during the Clinton-Bush race. They have been married for more than thirty years now this is what most of the pundits cannot comprehend and thus this is why the seemingly mismatched pair finds it hilarious. Of course they respect love each other, even though they have pointed their disagreements he was vehemently against the Gulf War, whereas Matalin as a White House employee under George W. Bush was pro the invasion. The solid connection seems to be reminiscent of a bygone era when peoples political grudges where not sufficient to prevent them from at least being polite towards one another.
“Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid” implies that Carville himself feels that his style of political struggles, his party loyalty, and even his campaign language have become an anachronism for many in the niche, including quite a few Democrats. He criticizes what he calls the ‘woke silliness’ of progressives who are so entrenched that they may cause moderate to even hard-core Democratic supporters to jump over to the Republic Party instead. Although Biden supporters might hold a grudge against him for quite openly expressing support for attempts to replace the sitting president, in his own words, he simply could not care less. In his case, winning is indeed everything.
As his long-time friend Paul Begala, a fellow political consultant and commentator says about Carville, ‘he is the smartest son of a bitch who’s ever done this for a living’. Of course age has incapacitated him slightly, but this doesn’t mean thatCarville is done he is still in the thick of action.
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