James Carville ‘Frightened’ By Failure Of Health Care Bill, Midterm Elections

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by Frances Martel | 5:49 pm, March 1st, 2010

» 6 comments

Perhaps it was too early in the morning, or something about being reunited with old pal George Stephanopoulos made him feel open to being emotional, but James Carville looked uncommonly vulnerable today discussing the 2010 midterm elections and health care reform on ABC’s Good Morning America. Joining Stephanopoulos and former Bush strategist Matthew Dowd, Carville revived the Sen. Jim DeMint‘s term “Obama’s Waterloo” and admitted to feeling “frightened” and believing some of the hype that “Democrats can’t govern.”

Stephanopoulos began the discussion by pointing out that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she is confident that there will be Democratic victories in the November elections in Congress: “I’m glad to hear she’s confident…but the math is pretty daunting.”

This is about as positive as Carville sounds throughout the entire discussion regarding his party’s chances. More shocking, however, is that it is not only his faith in the success of the party that has waned, but his belief that the Democrats are capable of governing at all:

If [health care reform] goes down, it’s going to be a simple statement: the Democrats can’t govern. They came in with a majority promising health care, and they came away with nothing. How can you trust them to do anything else? And I have to tell you, as a Democrat, that frightens me.

James Carville has always been one of the most consistently honest members of the American left, both to himself and his party. He’s no Terry McAuliffe – he’ll tell it like it is, even to his side of the aisle. Still, watching him today has to be jarring for Democratic strategists and public officials alike.

Here’s Carville on Good Morning America:

2010 midterm elections, Congress, Democrats, elections, George Stephanopoulos, Good Morning America, Health Care Reform, James Carville, Jim DeMint, Matthew Dowd, Republicans, Waterloo

writer

Perhaps there was a mirror nearby.
Grammie

Actually I think that a not only more accurate headline but also a much more attention grabbing one would have been:

James Carville ‘Frightened’ By Dem Inability to Govern, Midterm Elections
writer

James has been a prominent voice for the Democrats since giving up a lucrative career haunting houses.
econobiker

Perhaps he doesn’t understand, as most politically connected people also don’t, it that people are more worried about employment and jobs right now versus health care.

Obama wanting to add more jobs to the economy cracks me up. He doesn’t have a clue that the US exported all the jobs off shore and continues to do so…
felixw

Hard to look at the last year-and-a-half, and not wonder what the Democrats really achieved with the greatest political majority in modern times. Just a bunch of pork-filled spending bills, that no one even read before spending them. Besides that, what has Obama done? Guantanamo is still open. The President just signed an extension of the Patriot Act. Troops are still in Iran and Afghanistan. Unemployment and the economy are even worse than under Bush. How can anyone be happy with this, left, right or center?
disgusted

“they” can’t ‘govern, BUT, I wouldn’t TRUST someone who changes the color of his shirt/? – to WIN an election!