3/11/08 10:00 AM

2008 Campaign Stuns Even These Political Veterans

By Kathy Gurchiek

When campaign veterans James Carville and Mary Matalin discuss politics, it’s like oil landing on a hot skillet. The words pop quick and hot, and they sting if you’re not quick enough to get out of the way.

That sizzle, and their affection for each other, was palpable between the political polar opposites who have been married to each other for nearly 15 years. They shared their insights with Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) members attending the SHRM Employment Law & Legislative Conference that kicked off March 10, 2008, in Washington, D.C.

Carville, a Democrat from Louisiana, known as the Ragin’ Cajun, guided Bill Clinton to his 1992 White House win. He also was the focus, along with Clinton senior political advisor George Stephanopoulos, of the 1993 feature-length Academy Award-nominated documentary The War Room about the Clinton campaign and the organization that ran it.

Matalin, a Republican, was deputy campaign manager for George H. Bush during the 1992 campaign and is a former assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Cheney. Prior to joining the Bush/Cheney White House, she hosted CNN’s political debate show “Crossfire.”

The 2008 presidential election was uppermost in the minds of Carville and Matalin, even though neither is representing current candidates. Carville now focuses on international clients and is an author, restaurateur and talk show host; Matalin runs Threshold, a conservative publishing imprint at Simon & Schuster.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Matalin said of the 2008 campaign. She is “particularly struck” by the fact that every piece of conventional political wisdom does not apply in this election.

Political strategists, for example, will craft a campaign so it’s timed around when voters typically make up their minds about a candidate. However, in this campaign that already seems marathon-like in duration, there is no one moment, she said, when that point has been identified.

Republican John McCain, the Arizona senator who will be the Republican nominee for president, “needs this time to unify the party” and define his candidacy more strongly.

Carville called this presidential election cycle “incomprehensible,” noting that 9 million people have watched the presidential debates on TV.

“They don’t get that with most TV shows,” he added. Right now, he said, “presidential politics is kind of like an elevator with no ‘down’ button.”

Carville also talked about Hillary Clinton’s comeback from 11 consecutive primary election losses. In addition, he said, the news media and her Senate colleagues turned on her, but she rebounded by raising $35 million.

“What happened to Hillary was the most stunning thing” he’d ever seen, Carville said, and was attributable to women over 50 rising up and pulling out their checkbooks to rush to Clinton’s defense.

Matalin called the Clinton campaign “a race of redemption.”

“How many times have they written her off?” she said of Clinton. “It’s redemption. It’s grit. It’s what we want to see in the American character.”

Another twist to this campaign is that spouses of candidates are “imposing themselves on the election,” she said.

Matalin noted wryly she could relate to having a spouse from the South who can’t keep his mouth shut. Carville just grinned from his side of the stage.

He took the stage after Matalin concluded—like their politics, their podiums were at opposite ends—and his opening remarks provided a peek into the dynamics of their marriage.

Carville recalled a joint appearance in November 2007 on “Meet the Press.” One of his comments on the show caused Matalin to fume all the way back to their farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Along the way home, with their two daughters in tow, they stopped for lunch and margaritas at a Mexican restaurant. Matalin barely spoke to him, Carville recalled, and then snapped at one of the girls who was misbehaving.

“Why can’t you be good?” Matalin said to one of their daughters. She would be good, the child said, if her mother gave her a dollar.

“Why can’t you be good for nothing, like your father?” Matalin retorted, as Carville recalled the story with relish.

After lunch, the family piled back into their pickup truck and continued homeward along winding back roads until a police officer pulled Carville over for allegedly driving 85 mph in a 60 mph zone.

As Carville disputed the charge, he said, Matalin piped up, “He’s lying. He works for Clinton, and they’re all liars.”

The officer then noted that Carville was not wearing a seatbelt, a driving offense in Virginia, where seatbelts are mandatory.

He had removed it, Carville explained, to reach for his wallet so he could present his license.

Once again his wife spoke up, claiming Carville never wore a seat belt, setting a terrible example for the children.

At this point, Carville said, he turned to Matalin and growled, “Will you shut up!”

“Ma’am,” the officer said to her, “does he always talk to you like that?”

“Not at all, officer,” Matalin said, “only when he’s been drinking.”

Despite their opposing political views, however, both urged SHRM members to become active in shaping issues.

“A little political activism can go a long way to getting your concerns heard, and the concerns of your organization,” Carville told SHRM members.

Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News. She can be reached at kgurchiek@shrm.org.

For the latest HR-related business and government news, go daily to www.shrm.org/hrnews.