Obama Should Be ‘More Aggressive’

Carville: Obama Should Be ‘More Aggressive’

Thursday, September 11, 2008 2:02 PM

By: Rick Pedraza Article Font Size






Democratic strategist James Carville tells Newsmax that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn’t been aggressive enough in his campaign against Republican rival John McCain.

“His message has gotten a little more focused,” Carville says about Obama during the past month, “but what’s happened in this campaign – and the Republicans have gotten very good at this – is every morning they get up and say, ‘What is that we can do to make people forget what’s happened to their lives?’

“I think the Obama people need to realize that every day they get up they have this mundane, but very important, task of reminding people what has happened in their lives and who to blame for it.”

The strategy the Democratic Party is using, Carville says, reflects too much reassurance, and not enough passion.

Recent polls have shown a 20-point shift of white women support from Obama to McCain, but Carville is not alarmed.

“In politics, everybody gets alarmed at everything,” he says. “These convention bounces don’t happen all the time. We have to wait until Governor [Sarah] Palin is weaned from the teleprompter. Right now we only know her from what we see on the teleprompter. So, we’ll wait and see.”

Carville turns out to be a good prognosticator. Last time Newsmax interviewed him, Carville said Obama would pick Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate, and that McCain’s choice would be a surprise. Turns out he was right on both counts.

“It was a shocker,” he says. “I thought that since Obama would reassure us, McCain would surprise us. That did happen, and now we’re in the next phase of the campaign.”

Did Obama make a big, and potentially fatal, mistake by not putting Hillary on the ticket with him?

“There are a lot of people that argue that if [Obama] had picked Hillary, he would have forced McCain to react in a different way,” Carville explains. “It certainly would have had a positive impact on his fundraising. But by the same token, he’s the nominee and he’s entitled to pick who he wants.”

Does Hillary want Obama to lose so she can run against McCain in four years?

“She’s campaigned more for Obama than any runner up for the nomination has campaigned for anybody,” Carville says.

“I don’t have any reason to think her support is not sincere. There’s no evidence that it’s not.”



Carville: 'Too Much Reassurance, Not Enough Passion'