Quotes by James Carville - Page 3 | QuoteForever

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

The American psyche has not recovered, and likely will not ever fully recover, from the profound and relentless incompetence of George W. Bush's disastrous, multitrillion-dollar war.
James Carville / Commentator
Incompetence
Profound
Relentless
Disastrous
George W
Psyche
Recover
Copy Quote
Over the course of history, governments, political regimes, and leaders have done some stupid things despite all arguments to the contrary, at times even against their own self-interest.
James Carville / Commentator
Contrary
Regimes
Self Interest
Governments
Copy Quote
Bill Clinton is a person who causes a lot of passion both ways about people, and there's certainly a lot of turmoil if you look back at the eight years. But there was a lot of good, too.
James Carville / Commentator
Causes
Clinton
Turmoil
Bill Clinton
Both Ways
Copy Quote
I tell my students that the single most powerful thing that we have in this country - something that literally harbors no dissent and no questioning - is the all-powerful elite narrative.
James Carville / Commentator
Dissent
Harbors
Most Powerful
Narrative
Questioning
All-Powerful
Elite
Powerful Thing
Copy Quote
Why are you sitting here when our democracy is under assault with the FBI acting at the behest of [Republican Congressman] Jason Chaffetz and sitting here acting like it is something legit?
James Carville / Commentator
Acting
Democracy
Jason
Copy Quote
Conservatives literally view it as a kind of a weakness to talk to people other than their own. Nothing would bore me more than to sit around talking and listening to a bunch of liberals all day.
James Carville / Commentator
Weakness
All Day
Conservatives
Liberals
Copy Quote
The voter is basically dumb and lazy. The reason I became a Democratic operative instead of a Republican was because there were more Democrats that didn’t have a clue than there were Republicans.
James Carville / Commentator
Dumb
Lazy
Voters
Copy Quote
When one has retired from the ranks of American domestic political consulting, as I have, you are not really allowed to just quit. You become emeritus, of counsel, senior status, and God knows what.
James Carville / Commentator
Consulting
Retired
Senior
Counsel
Domestic
Quit
Ranks
Status
Copy Quote
You know there's nothing a Hill Democrat would rather do than criticize another Democrat. It is their favorite activity. Then they can read about how honorable they are in an Op-Ed piece, how bipartisan.
James Carville / Commentator
Activity
Bipartisan
Criticize
Democrat
Hills
Honorable
Pieces
Op-Ed
Piece
Copy Quote
What I'm suggesting is, stand for yourself, be for something, and the hell with it. Because the hand-wringers and the editorialists and the sigh-and-pontificate crowd will be against you, whatever you do.
James Carville / Commentator
Crowds
Hands
Hell
Copy Quote
There is nothing going on and in the meantime we do know that our democracy is under assault by the KGB. To me, that's something we ought to be talking about. That's a relevant issue in this campaign [2016].
James Carville / Commentator
Issues
Kgb
Talking
Copy Quote
I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope or as a 400 basball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.
James Carville / Commentator
Baseball
Political
Thinking
Copy Quote
The only person that ever stumbles is a guy moving forward. You don't stumble backwards; you stumble forward, and you never stumble when you're stationary. So don't worry about stumbling. Keep pushing it forward.
James Carville / Commentator
Backwards
Guy
Moving
Moving Forward
Pushing
Stationary
Stumbling
Worry
Person
Only
Never
Ever
Forward
Stumble
Copy Quote
We ought to be talking about our democracy being under assault right now and what we're going to do about it and not what somebody said in July about James Comey. That's a distraction, that's not what's going on.
James Carville / Commentator
Democracy
July
Talking
Copy Quote
When I was sixteen, I borrowed a copy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' from the mobile library. Democrats and Republicans were standing for very different principles, and I could see which side was going to represent me.
James Carville / Commentator
Borrowed
Library
Mobile
Mockingbird
Principles
Sixteen
Standing
Copy
Represent
Democrats
Democrats And Republicans
Republicans
Copy Quote
I've never seen a candidate - I've never seen a human being - who, with the most limited briefing, can understand the dimensions, the parameters, the nuances of everything of any kind of a policy or political problem.
James Carville / Commentator
Dimensions
Nuance
Political
Copy Quote
There's a simple doctrine. Outside of a person's love the most sacred thing they can give is their labor. Labor is a very precious thing you have and any time you can combined labor and love you've really made a match.
James Carville / Commentator
Giving
Love You
Simple
Copy Quote
When George W. Bush was president, his daddy was raising money for the Bush library. I thought that was fine. When Bob Dole was Majority Leader, Elizabeth Dole was the president of American Red Cross. I didn't say anything.
James Carville / Commentator
Bob
Daddy
Fine
Leader
Library
Majority
President
Red
Anything
American
Bush
Cross
Dole
Elizabeth
George
George W
George W. Bush
Raising
Copy Quote
This is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This administration and old wealthy people have declared war on young people. That is the real war that is going on here. And that is the war we've got to talk about.
James Carville / Commentator
War
Class
Real
Copy Quote
Hurricane [Katrina] hit the Gulf Coast and destroyed much of the Gulf Coast - that was an act of God ... Now what happened to New Orleans, that was a complete failure of the federal government. Complete negligence by the feds.
James Carville / Commentator
Government
Hurricanes
New Orleans
Copy Quote
I have people ask me if I'm going to convince my daughters to be Democrats, and I say, 'I have yet to convince my daughters to close a door.' I don't how in the world I would ever convince them to be in a political affiliation.
James Carville / Commentator
Affiliation
Convince
Political World Me
Democrats
Copy Quote
Truth is relative. Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth. If you're smart enough, truth is what you make the voter think it is. That's why I'm a Democrat. I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.
James Carville / Commentator
Truth
Believe
Smart
Copy Quote
I point out the Democratic party won two world wars and beat the depression, cut out the poverty by two thirds, and was responsible for the same sustained prosperity that we've had in the United States. What the hell do we have to apologize for?
James Carville / Commentator
Democratic Party
Prosperity
Apologize
Sustained
World Wars
Copy Quote
What's the real difference between Republicans and Democrats? Let me tell ya the real difference ... Republicans will always take on people in the interest of power and good democrats will never fear to take on the power in the interests of people.
James Carville / Commentator
Differences
People
Real
Copy Quote
When you run for president, and become president, they just rip you apart. Every facade of privacy that you have is gone. I think everybody believes that, to some extent, you can maintain privacy. And I think in the end, everybody gets proven wrong.
James Carville / Commentator
Facade
Privacy
Proven
Rip
Believes
Extent
In The End
Maintain
Copy Quote
I know a bit about selling books, and you need a good title - a catchy concoction with a little Cajun spice, something that will make folks stop in the aisles, turn away from the Grisham novels and the latest crazy diet fad, and pick up your masterpiece.
James Carville / Commentator
Diet
Catchy
Selling
Good Diet Your
Fad
Latest
Spice
Title
Copy Quote
In 1992, the most treasured voter was a voter that would sort of swing back and forth, one that might vote for Republican for president, Democrat for governor. The voter that didn't have that strong of a partisan ID. These were the voters that we targeted.
James Carville / Commentator
Democrat
Might
President
Strong
Treasured
Vote
Voters
Forth
Governor
Id
Partisan
Swing
Targeted
Voter
Copy Quote
I grew up in a French-dominated Catholic part of the country. I was an altar boy. I went to Catholic school. I have a cousin who is a priest - it's part of my DNA. It's kind of hard to separate me from the church, to try to say where one starts and the other stops.
James Carville / Commentator
Catholic
Catholic School
Cousin
Dna
Altar
Priest
Copy Quote
My high school job was putting insulation in attics - in Louisiana in the summer. It must have been 95 degrees every day, and the insulation used to get all over me. It was not fun. But I didn't know any different. It wasn't like I was spending summers on Cape Cod.
James Carville / Commentator
Degrees
High School
Louisiana
Spending
Summer
Cape
Me Fun Day
Putting
Copy Quote
We say there are people who have worked in campaigns who say that they have lost some - and we call those folks operatives, managers, strategists, consultants; and then there are people who work in campaigns and say that they have never lost, and we call them liars.
James Carville / Commentator
Campaigns
Consultants
Folks
Liars
Managers
Copy Quote
I would describe myself as having a healthy income, but I sure wouldn't describe the son of a postmaster and an encyclopedia saleswoman as upper class, by any stretch of the imagination. I would describe myself as decidedly middle class. I think I'm extremely fortunate.
James Carville / Commentator
Imagination
Class
Encyclopedia
Fortunate
Healthy
Income
Middle
Middle Class
Son
Sure
Decidedly
Describe
Extremely
Stretch
Upper
Copy Quote
You are sitting here defending an assault on American democracy. Somebody probably said nice things about anybody at a given point. This is an unprecedented event that was done at the behest of the House Republicans that was leaked to the press by the House Republicans.
James Carville / Commentator
Democracy
House
Nice
Copy Quote
Some comments are within bounds, while some are not. But by whining about every little barb, candidates are trying to win the election through a war of staff resignation attrition, and Americans are losing the ability to distinguish between what is fair game and what is not.
James Carville / Commentator
War
Attrition
Bounds
Candidates
Election
Fair Game
Losing
Resignation
Staff
Within
Game
Between
Comments
Distinguish
Fair
While
Copy Quote
The thing to remember about Obama is he doesn't care if you like him or I like him or somebody else does. He literally would rather do homework with his kids than be around other politicians. Does this make him unpopular at times? Yes. Does it make him ineffective? Most certainly not.
James Carville / Commentator
Homework
Obama
Certainly
Unpopular
Politicians
Ineffective
Literally
Yes
Copy Quote
If you want to believe that the government's coming for our guns or that being gay is a choice and a sin or that ObamaCare signals the end of civilization or that cutting taxes for rich people is the path to a better America, that's your choice. I'm never going to believe in any of that.
James Carville / Commentator
Civilization
Cutting
Gay
Obamacare
Path
Rich People
Signals
Sin
Taxes
Government Path Believe
Government Believe Better
Choice
Guns
Our Choice
Copy Quote
I think this an outrage and I think the fact that the KGB is involved in this election [2016] is an outrage and I think the American people ought to take their democracy back regardless of what the press wants to do and the excuses they want to make for [James] Comey. That's what I think.
James Carville / Commentator
Kgb
People
Thinking
Copy Quote
Like a lot of people, I pray for a sick relative or that kind of thing, but I don't pray to make my next flight connection at the airport. I find prayers before sports contests to be insensitive and kind of demeaning, at least when someone prays to beat the other team or something like that.
James Carville / Commentator
Contests
Demeaning
Flight
Insensitive
Relative
Sick
Pray
Airport
Beat
Connection
Pray For
Copy Quote
Democrats, myself included, tend to respect and value expertise and find that people who have established a record of accuracy and developed a model that's proven to be beneficial over time should be people accorded great deference when they opine on a topic that they have demonstrated past mastery over.
James Carville / Commentator
Beneficial
Expertise
Mastery
Proven
Time Respect Great
Accorded
Established
Democrats
Included
Topic
Copy Quote
[ James Comey] was acting in concert and coordination with the House Republicans. End of story. He gave a letter to them. They gave it to FOX News. Also, we have this extraordinary case of the KGB being involved in this race and selectively leaking things from the [Hillary] Clinton campaign that they hacked.
James Carville / Commentator
House
Kgb
Race
Copy Quote
You know, back in 2000 a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we'd lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what: I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I'll be damned if all those things didn't come true.
James Carville / Commentator
Jobs
Military
Winning
Copy Quote
I made the argument that every growing demographic in this country - nonwhite voters, younger people - is trending Democratic. It's a ticking time bomb for the GOP. That's why I felt safe in saying that 'Republicans have no hope of making serious inroads into Democratic advantages in 2010 or likely 2012 or 2014 and so on.'
James Carville / Commentator
Gop
No Hope
Voters
Time Hope People
Advantages
Bomb
Demographic
Republicans
Ticking
Younger People
Copy Quote
Some of these people think the universe is five thousand years old, and they say it with a straight face. If somebody had an explanation saying why they thought the earth was five thousand years old, there's only two possible explanations: you're really stupid, or you're really cynical and trying to get really stupid people's votes.
James Carville / Commentator
Cynical
Explanation
Thousand
Thousand Years
Votes
Copy Quote
Back when I went to Louisiana State University a million years ago, we got the Baton Rouge paper. But if you wanted to read 'The New York Times' or 'The Wall Street Journal,' you had to go to the reading room of the student union, and you got the edition several days after it had been published, and you had to read it on a wooden stick.
James Carville / Commentator
Baton
Journal
Louisiana
New York Times
Rouge
Wall Street Journal
Street New Back
Edition
Million Years
Published
State University
Street Journal
Wall Street
Wooden
Copy Quote
American democracy is really under attack here [Clinton campaign that was hacked]. And the question is how are we and in particular and how are Democrats going to respond to this. We have to understand this is really, really quite extraordinary. And it would seem to me that the FBI shouldn't be getting rolled by the House Republicans and that's what happened here.
James Carville / Commentator
Campaigns
Democracy
House
Copy Quote

Related Commentator Authors

William Kristol
Commentator
Tuesday, Dec 23, 1952
Walter Winchell
Commentator
Wednesday, Apr 07, 1897
Sunday, Feb 20, 1972
Tucker Carlson
Commentator
Friday, May 16, 1969
Teddy Atlas
Commentator
Sunday, Jul 29, 1956
Stephanie Miller
Commentator
Friday, Sep 29, 1961
Sally Kohn
Commentator
Sunday, Mar 27, 1977
Rex Murphy
Commentator
Pewdiepie
Commentator
Tuesday, Oct 24, 1989
Paul Harvey
Commentator
Wednesday, Sep 04, 1918
Saturday, Feb 28, 2009
Paul Gigot
Commentator
Tuesday, May 24, 1955
Nancy Grace
Commentator
Friday, Oct 23, 1959
Murray Walker
Commentator
Wednesday, Oct 10, 1923
Mort Kondracke
Commentator
Friday, Apr 28, 1939
Mike Sexton
Commentator
Monday, Sep 22, 1947
Mike Goldberg
Commentator
Tuesday, Nov 24, 1964

View All Commentator Quotes

Top Authors

Albert Camus
Author
Friday, Nov 07, 1913
Monday, Jan 04, 1960
Michael Jordan
Basketball Player
Sunday, Feb 17, 1963
Lucy Larcom
Poet
Friday, Mar 05, 1824
Monday, Apr 17, 1893
Epictetus
Philosopher
Carrie Fisher
Actress
Sunday, Oct 21, 1956
Tuesday, Dec 27, 2016
Robin Williams
Actor
Saturday, Jul 21, 1951
Monday, Aug 11, 2014
Jean De La Bruyere
Wednesday, Aug 16, 1645
Thursday, May 10, 1696
Plato
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Julius Caesar
Roman Dictator
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Les Brown
Author
Saturday, Feb 17, 1945
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Writer
Thursday, Aug 28, 1749
Thursday, Mar 22, 1832
Thomas Sowell
Economist
Monday, Jun 30, 1930
Friedrich Nietzsche
Philologist
Tuesday, Oct 15, 1844
Saturday, Aug 25, 1900
Tyler, The Creator
Rapper
Wednesday, Mar 06, 1991
Thomas Jefferson
3Rd US President
Saturday, Apr 13, 1743
Tuesday, Jul 04, 1826

View All Authors

Share This Page