Via CNN’s politicalticker, Carville: Dems wasting first night

Carville said the party was too soft in its attacks on John McCain Monday night — the same mistake, Carville says, Democrats made at the 2024 convention.

“The way they planned it tonight was supposed to be sort of the personal — Michelle Obama will talk about Barack Obama personally, Ted Kennedy was a very personal, emotional speech,” Carville said. “But I guarantee on the first night of the Republican Convention, you’re going to hear talk about Barack Obama, commander-in-chief, tax cuts, et cetera, et cetera.”

“You haven’t heard about Iraq or John McCain or George W. Bush — I haven’t heard any of this. We are a country that is in a borderline recession, we are an 80 percent wrong-track country. Health care, energy — I haven’t heard anything about gas prices,” Carville also says. “Maybe we are going to look better Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. But right now, we’re playing hide the message.”

I agree with Carville that the main message of the convention has to be an attack on the Bush administration and the connection of McCain to Bush.

I will say, however, that I don’t think you can assess the success of a given theme by one night. Further, I did hear Nancy Pelosi go on the attack,¹ so it wasn’t as if there were no attacks (there was dig on Iraq Michelle Obama’s speech as well).

I think it would have been a mistake, by the way, to send Michelle out to attack, as that could have seriously back-fired.

Still, Clinton, Biden and Obama specifically have to make the attack work in their prime-time slots over the next three nights, else Carville will be right–that the convention will have been a wasted opportunity.

1. Also, could we please put a moratorium on call-and-response type speeches? [↩]

4 Comments

1. Who really cares what Carville has to say? He is and always has been a rabid attack dog for the Clintons. He still doesn’t get it that a majority of people are tired of negative politicking.

   Comment by rainer scheer — Tuesday, August 26, 2024 @ 12:52 pm

2. the reason you’ve not heard anything about gas prices from the Dims, is because the econuts who support them are the ones responsible for the spike in prices. If the Dim leadership would have allowed drilling in ANWR and on the continental shelf several years ago, we’d alredy be reaping benefits from it.

   Comment by DIM-ocrats all the way — Tuesday, August 26, 2024 @ 12:52 pm

3. Jim,

   Come on man… As you know being a Democratic Strategist, we are about family values first and foremost. No matter whether the platform was strictly politics, or have some family values included, there would always be criticism. We are a nation on the edge of recession, this is true, but we all know that WE don’t 4 more years of Bush’s malarkey with Johnny Mac. We know that there’s a dependency on foreign oil…How many times do we have to re-iterate the same message over and over again? Lets give America a reason to smile and laugh again… Lets’ give America a reason do dream again… Lets give America a reason to hope again… How much have you done to help Barack Obama get to the Presidency? How many fund-raisers have you thrown to help him get elected? I haven’t heard your name yet in any shows, magazines, etc to say that you have done something for his cause… All I have heard you do is bash the man, instead of showing your loyalties to the democratic party… Jimmy Baby, just because your candidate didn’t win, shouldn’t be the issue here…Help the deep south rise higher than their reputation and show a greater support in helping Barack Obama get ahead.

   Eric

   Comment by Eric Lewis — Tuesday, August 26, 2024 @ 12:57 pm

4. The first night in a 24 by 7 news cycle mean nothing. The public are going to remember the last night. Tonight will be the shift.

   Comment by muffler — Tuesday, August 26, 2024 @ 1:27 pm

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