“You have to be a visionary and imagine things. If you don’t win elections, you’re just sitting there imagining. I’m not into imagination; I’m into things happening.”
-James Carville, episode 375 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
“You’re never gonna forget where you were last night at 7:30,” says James Carville. “It has the potential to be that consequential.”
Carville is regarded as one the most influential (and animated) operators in the Democratic Party. He came to prominence as the chief architect behind Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign, and has remained one of the most incisive political analysts in the country.
He joins us this week from the Aspen Ideas Festival, the day after the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump (8:15), to discuss what he saw from each candidate (10:30), whether Biden should (or will) step aside in the months ahead (16:16), and who, theoretically, would be fit to run come August at the DNC (26:00).
On the back-half, Carville shares how he would reframe the Democrats’ political strategy (33:19), the “coastal condensation” that has slipped into the bloodstream of the left (36:30), his advice on winning elections (54:00), and how he aims to inspire swing voters in purple states through the American Bridge project (59:48). To close, a scene from the 1993 documentary The War Room (1:01:57), and why his love of politics remains undiminished even after this dark week in American democracy (1:05:10).
Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at sf@talkeasypod.com.
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Show-notes:
- Watch the 1993 documentary The War Room.
- Learn about the American Bridge project.
- Listen to James’ podcast Politics War Room.
- Follow him on Twitter.
- Find more information about Aspen Ideas Fest.
- For more conversations, hear our talks with Evan Osnos, David Remnick, and Ezra Klein.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
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Original illustration by Krishna Shenoi.
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